Glenn Sterle (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I appreciate getting the call now. Colleagues, I am hosting a road safety thing upstairs, so I appreciate that you have allowed me to get out of the way. I want to talk to this motion. What we do know is that the food sector is seeking rapid innovation and change in products and markets globally. We understand that. We understand that, by 2050, the Food and Agriculture Organization estimates, we will need to produce 60 per cent more food to feed an expected 9.7 billion people. Those are scary figures. Across the world, we know, enterprises are looking at opportunities to diversify protein supply to meet global demand. We know the Australian government is committed to ensuring we are well placed to meet this demand through the expansion of both traditional livestock and alternative protein industries.

Australia has some of the strongest food safety provisions in the world, and we want to keep it that way. The Australian government, with our state and territory counterparts, is committed to keeping food safe through legislation and regulation such as the Food Standards Code. The primary role of the Food Standards Code is to ensure safe food supplies so Australian and New Zealander consumers can be confident that the foods they choose to buy are safe to eat. God knows we all want that. We know Food Standards Australia New Zealand, which we refer to as FSANZ, is responsible for setting food standards in the Food Standards Code.

In February this year, FSANZ accepted its first application to permit cell-culture quail as a novel food. It is the only cell-culture meat application currently being assessed. FSANZ follows a rigorous process for assessing the safety of food. The assessment of cultured quail meat application will include chemical, nutritional, microbiological and dietary exposure assessments. It talks about detailed examination of the applicant's production process and review of the food science to ensure that, prior to going on sale, the product is safe to consume.

FSANZ's assessment will also involve two rounds of public consultation. In fact, I think it should be more—we should be talking a lot more—but they're going to do two at this stage. Details will be made available on the food standards website as consultation dates are set, and we hope that they are too. It is expected that this assessment will take approximately 12 months, so who knows how long that will take. If FSANZ approves the products, Australian and New Zealand food ministers will have 60 days to review the decision. The government views FSANZ as the appropriate body to deal with matters of food standards and safety and suggests that inquiries of this nature go to FSANZ directly.

I was sitting here earlier. I have to be honest. I'm always honest—what am I saying? I'm sharing it with you more. I thought, 'What the hell is cell culture meat or cultured quail meat?' I was on the committee that Senator McDonald drove that inquired into what is meat and into some of the nonsense we call meat. I'm on Senator McDonald's side on most of this stuff. But I thought, 'I've got to look this up.' With modern technology and the help of my good friend Senator Payman—I asked her, 'How do you google this?'—I found this. I want to share this. Senators, you'll love this. I have to share this with the Senate. This is what I found. Bear with me because I'm reading from an iPhone and I've forgotten my glasses. It says:

Several continuous tissue culture cell lines were established from methylcholanthrene-induced fibrosarcomas of Japanese quail.

It's as clear as day! You don't have to be Einstein to work that out! It's helpful that I could read that. Do I have a worried look on my face? I'll keep going. It says:

The lines consist either of fibroblastic elements, round refractile cells or polygonal cells.

Simple! It says:

They show transformed characteristics in agar colony formation and hexose uptake, and most are tumorigenic—

Of course they are. What else would they be? It says:

Their cloning efficiency in plastic dishes is not increased over that of normal quail embryo fibroblasts.

It goes without saying, as day follows night. It says:

The quail tumor cell lines do not produce endogenous avian oncoviruses—

thank goodness—

and fail to complement the Bryan high titer strain of Rous sarcoma virus—

whew, we dodged a bullet—

those tested lack the p27 protein of avian oncoviruses. Most of the cell lines are susceptible to subgroup A avian sarcoma viruses, but are relatively resistant to viruses of subgroups C, E and F as compared to normal quail embryo fibroblasts.

What do we have to worry about? It's in the hands of the experts, seriously, so I see no problem. I'd rely heavily on FSANZ. I mean, that's as clear as day! I understand Senator Roberts's concerns. We do have to have concerns, but if anyone can't understand what I've just read out then they shouldn't even be in this joint. Are you coming back truck driving with me? I thought it was just me.

But on a serious note, Senator Roberts, I understand your passion. I understand where you're going. Unfortunately—and I mean unfortunately for you, sorry, and fortunately for me and others who would be doing the inquiry; I don't know yet—we won't be supporting it. We do have faith in FSANZ. We have faith in our scientists, specialists and experts in this field. If we do do the inquiry, I'm looking forward to going through this with you, Senator Roberts. We can share some of this info while we're waiting to question people. I just found it as clear as day and not a problem!