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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1995 Week 11 Hansard (13 December) . . Page.. 2937 ..

Wednesday, 13 December 1995

___________________________

The Assembly met at 10.30 am.

(Quorum formed)

MR SPEAKER (Mr Cornwell) took the chair and asked members to stand in silence and pray or reflect on their responsibilities to the people of the Australian Capital Territory.

FOOD (AMENDMENT) BILL 1995

Debate resumed from 23 August 1995, on motion by Mr Connolly:

That this Bill be agreed to in principle.

MRS CARNELL (Chief Minister and Minister for Health and Community Care) (10.32): I find this Bill absolutely amazing. This amendment is contrary to the national agreement which was agreed to and signed by Rosemary Follett. The agreement was made on 19 August 1991 and signed on behalf of the ACT, as I said, by the then Chief Minister, Rosemary Follett.

Mr De Domenico: That was last time.

MRS CARNELL: That was last time. I will table that agreement in a little while. It was agreed that no State or Territory that was a party to the agreement would, by legislation or any other means, establish or amend a food standard other than in accordance with this agreement. In other words, quite definitely it said that we will not do what this Bill tries to do. It seems that when Rosemary Follett signed this agreement she had no intention of doing what it says.

It is important to read into Hansard a letter that Mr Percival, the Director of the Public and Environmental Health Service, got from the National Food Authority in response to a fax that he sent to the National Food Authority letting it know about this proposed Bill. It says:

Thank you for your fax of 17 October 1995 regarding the legislative amendment to the ACT Food Act proposed in the ACT Assembly by opposition consumer affairs spokesman Terry Connolly.

Clause 5 of the Agreement between the Commonwealth of Australia, the States, the Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory in relation to the adoption of Uniform Food Standards (1991) prohibits a State or Territory establishing or amending a food standard other than

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