Page 4089 - Week 11 - Wednesday, 16 Sept 2009
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people making their choices to buy cage eggs, if that is what their finances allow them to do. We do not support the closing down of business in the ACT. The jury is still out about what we think about the labelling system. I think the labelling system proposed by the Chief Minister is significantly better, but I do not think it is right.
Actually, what we should do now is vote this bill down. I challenge the Chief Minister to vote the bill down and go with what you have actually said you believe in. Vote the bill down, and if we want to come back and have a discussion about egg labelling, let somebody who thinks it is important bring it back and we will have that discussion. In the process we might have a discussion with the supermarket people. Whether it is Woolworths or Coles or your local IGA or your local convenience store, every one of them—no matter how big or how small—is going to be affected by this.
We have received the amendments circulated by the Chief Minister. They look a bit better than the original bill.
Ms Bresnan: When?
MRS DUNNE: This was circulated at about the time question time finished. I would like the Chief Minister to account to supermarket owners in the ACT about how much thought has gone into the impact this would have on supermarkets in the ACT. I think that there has been very little thought about what will happen to people who sell eggs in the ACT. No-one has asked them about the cost, whether they can do this or any of those things. I think that if we are going to make substantial changes in one sector of food retailing, people deserve the opportunity to comment. It is not just the supermarkets. It is every deli. Does it relate to the fresh food markets, the fresh produce markets out at EPIC or the Hall market, or any of the other markets—
Ms Bresnan: They already sell free-range.
MRS DUNNE: The Chief Minister is advocating that there should be labelling that says how free-range eggs are produced. The Chief Minister needs to answer the question: has he considered the impact that his amendments—which are, for some reason, designed to appease the Greens—are going to have on the mum and dad who have a few free-range eggs that go out to EPIC on a Saturday morning; the local deli at the Belconnen markets or the Fyshwick markets that is run by a mum and a dad or the local convenience store or the large supermarket? I think the answer is: “We have not really thought about that. We certainly have not asked anybody what the impact will be.”
That is why we will be opposing every element of this bill. It does not do what the Greens want to do. It makes an unreasonable legislative imposition upon the Chief Minister. And the labelling is abhorrent. While the Chief Minister’s proposal, on the surface, looks better, it has been done without any consultation with any egg retailer in this town.
MR SESELJA (Molonglo—Leader of the Opposition) (4.30): Mrs Dunne has outlined a number of reasons why this bill should not be supported, and I endorse her comments. There are a number of things going on here. We are going to have the
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