Richard Colbeck (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Minister for Aged Care and Senior Australians) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the senator for his question. He raises a very important issue. My colleagues sitting around the table with me—food ministers—had, as senators are aware, a very serious conversation with respect to this issue. We listened closely to all perspectives and came to the view that the one thing we wanted to do, as a result of our considerations with respect to alcohol labelling, was move from a situation where we had voluntary labelling on alcohol containers to a compulsory one. That was one of the decisions we made. But we also did consider some of the representations that had been made to us by a range of stakeholders, and we asked FSANZ to do some additional work, which it's currently doing. FSANZ will report back to us next week. There's another meeting of the food ministers council next month, which will, I hope, make a final decision to form compulsory labelling for pregnancy warnings on alcohol receptacles. I sincerely hope that that's the case, and that's the conversation that I have. I understand that FSANZ, off the back of the meeting in March, has been back talking to all sides of this discussion—the medical professionals, those who are lobbying in respect of better management of alcohol labelling around FASD—because we all want to see the incidence of FASD stamped out completely. It's something I think we can do and we should do. That's why we are so firm in our view that there should be compulsory labelling—moving away from the circumstance of the voluntary system that's in place right now. We will consider the report provided to us by FSANZ, when we come to that meeting, and hopefully make a final decision.