Claire Chandler (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak in support of one of Australia's and Tasmania's fantastic premium produce industries, the Australian manuka honey industry. Australian manuka honey is an amazing product. Not only is it delicious but it has unique antimicrobial properties which mean it is used as a wound dressing and to counteract other infections including skin conditions, sore throats and even gastric upsets. Australian manuka honey—and, might I say, particularly Tasmanian manuka honey—is prized right around the world for its quality and its taste.

Many senators in this place would be aware of the attempts made by New Zealand to block Australian producers from using the name 'manuka', which was a long battle that our Australian industry won earlier this year. Unfortunately, that is not necessarily the end of the matter, because, as part of their campaign to protect their own brands, New Zealand producers have heavily campaigned against Australian manuka honey, including by making incorrect claims that Australian honey is an inferior product or somehow fake. That campaign has unfairly damaged the reputation of Australian manuka honey in key markets like the United Kingdom, which is not only extremely unfair but enormously damaging to Australian manuka honey producers.

In addition to that, I am advised that New Zealand will not allow the importation of Australian manuka honey, yet New Zealand producers can import their product to Australia. In recent years, New Zealand producers have undertaken what Australian producers believe amounts to the dumping of their excess stock in Australia, causing a significant price collapse of our own honey products. I'm sure that all senators agree that our fantastic manuka honey producers across the country, and particularly in my home state of Tasmania should be treated fairly by New Zealand. Competition is fine, but unfair practices which damage our industry are not.