Nick McKim (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

The Australian Greens utterly condemn any tampering with food in a dangerous way in our country, as we have seen recently around strawberries. We regard that kind of action as completely unacceptable. As such, we are very open to supporting reasonable legislative change to do what we can to ensure a strong legislative framework in this area. But, let's face it, to describe the Criminal Code Amendment (Food Contamination) Bill 2018 as a rushed job would be an understatement.

I want to acknowledge the officers of the Attorney-General's Department who briefed Mr Bandt and me on this bill this morning. I thank them for the time they provided to us and for the professional way they engaged with us. However, it needs to be on the record that this bill has been subject to no consultation whatsoever. It has not and will not be subject to any kind of parliamentary inquiry. As Senator Farrell has just said, it is most unusual for amendments to the Criminal Code to be made in such a short time frame. We have concerns about potential unintended consequences of this legislation, and we haven't had time to do the consultation that we need to do with our stakeholders and with people who we seek advice from with regard to legislation such as this. This leaves us in a very difficult position.

On balance, we've determined not to support this legislation at this stage, simply because the government has not provided enough time for us to conduct consultations or for the normal inquiry processes of the Senate to take place. We regret that that has occurred. We want to, and do, strongly support our primary producers, including, in this case, strawberry farmers. We understand the impacts that the events of the last few days have had on them. However, due to our concern about the indecent haste with which the government is proceeding and due to the lack of opportunity for us to consult and for the Senate to do the job it would normally be able to do on legislation such as this, we are not in a position to support the bill at this stage.