Page 3729 - Week 09 - Wednesday, 24 August 2011
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legislation was to actually operate. The Liberals have chosen to oppose the bill in its entirety and to oppose an adjournment. That left the government with no alternative but to support the passage of the legislation today because we will not, in the interests of public health, stand here and oppose point-of-sale nutrition information being provided. We think it is the right thing to do, but we also think this bill could have been improved by taking a little bit more time to get it right and to provide the opportunity for everyone who is going to be impacted by this legislative change to have the opportunity to be made aware of that and for the government and other members in this place to have some understanding about the regulatory impact costs and benefits of that.
However, because of the Liberal Party’s obstruction and opposition in the way in which they are conducting themselves in the Assembly, if the adjournment was to fail—which it will, based on the numbers—the government have no alternative but to work with Ms Bresnan to do the best we can in the detailed stage of this bill today. But I will also say that we reserve the right to bring this bill back prior to its commencement for further amendments should national consistency become a problem over the next six months—that is, although Ms Bresnan’s bill is broad enough and in line enough with the work that is being done nationally, if there are further improvements that need to be made based on the work that is done nationally we will bring this bill back for further amendment.
There is quite a lot of work going on in the area of national consistency. I accept that this has taken a long time and that other jurisdictions have moved prior to that national work being completed. I attended the food ministers meeting and spoke in favour of national consistency in this area. I think it is crazy to have eight different systems of point-of-sale nutrition information potentially operating across Australia. I think we should strive for national consistency. I think parents and other consumers should be able to know that the information they get in Queanbeyan is the same as they are going to get in Canberra or Perth. I just do not think it makes any sense to be creating jurisdictional specific point-of-sale legislative schemes.
Having said all that, the government are in favour of point-of-sale nutrition information. We have long argued and supported this in the forums that we participate in and we accept that the legislation before us today gives us an opportunity to genuinely show our support. We would not, and certainly I would not as health minister, be put in a position where I was going—as Mr Hanson is going to do as shadow health spokesperson—to vote against a bill that seeks to improve public health here in the ACT. I look forward to him justifying that.
Having said that, I will speak at the detailed stage to a number of amendments. I would like to thank the Health Directorate for working very closely with Ms Bresnan’s office, providing briefings and their expert insight into this. I would also like to acknowledge Angie Drake, who has been working across offices as well to improve the operations of this bill.
MR HANSON (Molonglo) (11.26): As indicated by the minister, the Liberals will not be supporting this bill. It is not because we do not support more information, better information, being provided at the point of sale. The arguments that we are putting
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