Louise Pratt (WA, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Environment and Water (Senate)) Share this | Hansard source

The bill before the chamber this afternoon, the Excise Levies Legislation Amendment (Honey) Bill 2016, is to remove the requirement for purchasers of honey who intend on exporting it to provide the seller with a certificate of their intention to export the honey. For those who are listening to this debate today, technically the honey industry no longer issues, receives or relies upon these certificates when selling to a buyer who intends to export the honey. However, the Senate needs to note today that this legislation was originally introduced in the House of Representatives in December last year. It was a companion bill to the Agriculture and Water Resources Legislation Amendment Bill 2016 to remove this redundant regulation, but, for some reason that I don't quite understand, the government has chosen to split the bills. I hope we will find out why this has occurred and what changed.

So while we on this side support this legislation, we would like to urge the Morrison government to support the honey and bee industries by taking seriously the issue of properly testing imported honey. We have had reports that currently Australian honey testing does not pick up adulterated honey. This is of particular concern. We don't want to see impure honey come into Australia. We want to ensure that the honey that comes in is pure, not only from a biosecurity point of view but also from a consumer point of view. As a consumer, I want to know when I buy and eat honey that it is real honey and that it has not got sugar or other additives in it, which mean, frankly, it is not honey at all. We've seen the government move quickly on strawberry contamination—as they should—but the government must also prioritise action to ensure that honey being imported is not adulterated.

I want to note that bees are absolutely critical to almost all agricultural industries, and consumers need to be confident that they are buying pure honey that has not been adulterated. It is important for our biosecurity and it is incredibly important for the values that consumers hold. The bee industry, like us, is today asking serious questions as to why the Morrison government has chosen not to act so strongly for their industry.