Kerry Nettle (NSW, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

I table the explanatory memorandum and seek leave to have the second reading speech incorporated in Hansard.

Leave granted.

The speech read as follows—

The Food Safety (Trans Fats) Bill 2007 aims to reduce Australian public exposure to unsafe synthetic trans fatty acids, which are known to the public as trans fats.  

This bill is urgently required as the Howard Government’s response to the danger of trans fats has been completely inadequate. The gentle pace of industry driven self regulation is totally inappropriate given the serious risks to community health.

The bill prohibits the manufacturing, distributing, offering for sale, selling or otherwise trading in food containing synthetic trans fatty acids by both constitutional corporations and individuals in particular circumstances.

The bill focuses on synthetic trans fatty acids which are defined as non-naturally occurring fats formed by the hydrogenation of vegetable oils. This is to distinguish the synthetic variety from naturally occurring trans fatty acids that are found generally in relatively small quantities in some foods.

The bill prohibits the addition of synthetic trans fatty acids to food, within the bounds of Commonwealth constitutional competence.  This will set a standard for the banning of dangerous synthetic trans fatty acids, which the States and Territories should follow.

Synthetic trans fatty acids are produced by the partial hydrogenation of liquid vegetable oils to make them solidify. This is added to certain foods to create enhanced physical properties that appeal to the food processing industry, such as increased shelf life and improved texture. Trans fats are typically found in fast foods such as chips, chicken nuggets and pizza, as well as packaged snacks and bakery products such as biscuits, cakes, pies, and doughnuts.

There is little argument that trans fats pose a serious health risk. Even the Department of Health and Ageing accepts the link between the consumption of trans fats and the risk factors for heart disease as conceded by the then Assistant Minister for Health and Ageing, Christopher Pyne in a media release dated the 12 March 2007. 

The scientific evidence shows synthetic trans fatty acids raise levels of dangerous low-density lipoprotein cholesterol while at the same time they reduce levels of the good cholesterol called high-density lipoprotein.  This has been shown to be a significant contributor to coronary heart disease which kills thousands of Australians each year. There are also evidential links that suggest trans fats contribute to the increase in diabetes.

The Australian Greens believe that community health is far more important than food industry profit, and as this issue is about food safety, immediate action is required to alleviate the danger. This bill is designed to create a legislative ban on the use of trans fats as this is the only way to guarantee the safety of Australian consumers.

This bill is consistent with community concern about this issue. The Greens agree with the Australian Medical Association call on 24 November, 2006 for a complete ban on the addition of trans fatty acids.

Christopher Pyne responded to the AMA on ABC radio’s PM programme on 19 January 2007 by claiming:

“You can’t actually ban trans-fats in our diet. They are in meat and they’re in dairy products. So I think the AMA, I can see their good faith is towards reducing trans-fats, but you can not simply ban trans-fats”.

Clearly Mr Pyne didn’t listen, or perhaps didn’t want to listen to what the AMA were calling for. The AMA, like the Australian Greens, are talking about eliminating the ‘addition’ of synthetic trans fats, not the banning of foods with naturally occurring trans fats such as those found in small amounts in some meat and dairy products.

The banning of synthetic trans fats is gathering momentum around the world.  In December 2006, New York City banned its more than 20,000 restaurants from using trans-fats in their food. In 2006 the USA Food and Drug Administration codes also mandated the labelling of trans fat contents on all foods sold in the USA.  Denmark introduced a country-wide ban in 2004, which affected both restaurants and food manufacturers. And a Canadian parliamentary task force has just recommended the legislative phase out of trans fats based on the Denmark example.

In Australia the response to this significant community health issue has been slow, with the Coalition seemingly more concerned about offending the food industry rather than protecting public health. 

Last year, the Federal Government set up a working group to look at trans fats, which included representatives from Food Standards Australia and New Zealand, the National Heart Foundation, the Dieticians Association, and the Food and Grocery Council.  

Food Standards Australia and New Zealand have, according to their web site,  been doing some dietary modelling which has concluded that trans fats make up only 0.6 percent of the average Australian’s food intake. This has been proudly trumpeted by Christopher Pyne, who argues this is a relalively low average amount, and is well below the World Health Organisation’s recommended maximum intake of 1 percent. But the problem isn’t the average intake, the problem is individual foods. This was reinforced on ABC Radio’s PM broadcast on 19 January 2007, by respected Australian nutritionist Dr Rosemary Stanton who stated:

“trans-fats can be as high as 40 per cent in some fast foods.”

She added:

“…with this sort of stick your head in the sand attitude that it’s not a really big problem here [in Australia] , there is absolutely nothing to stop a company putting out a particular product with 40 per cent of the fat being present as trans-fats.”

The latest news from the Government was Christopher Pyne’s announcement on 12 March 2007 where a fast food industry roundtable was convened. This group agreed to rather vague notions about the setting up of a ‘plan’ by September, to work out a self-regulating way of dealing with the problem.  The Greens and the community know what self-regulation is all about. To use the well worn cliché, it is like putting the fox in charge of the chicken coup. 

Mr Pyne said in an article in the Age on 13 of March 2007 that he ‘expected’ most companies – that is most not all – would follow a plan adopted by McDonalds that “almost eliminated” the use of trans fats. The problem with this example is that it has taken McDonalds 3 years to make any changes after their initial announcement.  Can we conclude from this that only ‘most’ Australian companies ‘may’ get onto the problem by 2010?

Well the Greens think this is simply not good enough. That is why we have drafted this bill to ban outright the addition of this poison in our foods. But perhaps we shouldn’t be too surprised as this is the Government that has failed to put in place even the most basic system of labelling products with trans fat content, so consumers can be fully informed to make their own choice. So much for the free-market philosophy of being ‘free to choose’.

So the Government has failed to introduce even the most basic requirement of labelling food so consumers know what has trans fat in it and can therefore avoid such products. But more importantly the Government has also failed on the crucial step of stopping trans fats being added to our food. That is why The Greens have been required because of our concern for public health to introduce this legislation. The Greens recognise the States have their own jurisdictional capacity to improve upon the scope of this bill.  That is why the bill has been drafted within the bounds of Commonwealth constitutional competence. 

Unlike some recent Government legislation, this bill is intended to operate within the bounds of Commonwealth constitutional competence and is not intended to override state legislation.  Consequently this bill does not abuse the recent extensions to the Corporations Power.

The bill expresses the intention of the Commonwealth Parliament that State Parliaments may adopt the provisions of this Act in their own legislation, and also in cooperation with the Commonwealth via the Australia New Zealand Food Standards Code.

In light of the knowledge that trans fats significantly increase the risk of heart disease, The Greens believe the Howard Government must act immediately to reduce Australia’s exposure.  While coronary heart disease is the leading single cause of death in Australia, the Government’s failure to act to ban these substances is irresponsible.

I commend this bill to the Senate.

I seek leave to continue my remarks later.

Leave granted; debate adjourned.