Page 3731 - Week 09 - Wednesday, 24 August 2011
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accept this work has taken some time to progress, I still believe your legislation should have the flexibility to incorporate the outcomes of this work when complete.
On the one hand Katy Gallagher has argued strongly against supporting this bill today, but she is going to do so simply because she does not want to be seen as being on the wrong side of the debate. I do not think that she is on the wrong side of the debate. She has argued very consistently and coherently for point-of-sale food labelling. Whether you agree with it or not, there is no doubt about where this government stands on it.
I am actually agreeing with the government on this point. It does make sense to take a breath, to make sure that we have nationally consistent legislation. If that is what we believe and that is what we agree to, we should hold firm to that position and say, “Let’s make sure that any legislation that we have passed in this place does adhere to nationally consistent legislation or regulations.”
It is odd to me that the minister would on the one hand argue that this bill is going to cause problems and on the other hand say that she is going to support it because she is a bit too afraid that people might think ill of her. I do not think that is the wrong way to approach it. The minister asked me to outline my case as to why we will not be supporting it, and that is why—basically because we agree with it, not because we disagree with it.
There is clearly a problem with obesity in this country. We understand that the cost of obesity in Australia is $6.5 billion annually. I think that has been a point well made. I have engaged with the Heart Foundation on this bill and on this issue. In fact, the Heart Foundation has done a lot of heavy lifting on this issue and has led the way on this debate. I am not arguing philosophically about the need for additional information to inform choices. I do not think it is a panacea and I do not think it is a silver bullet, but I believe there are some measures that we can put in place to provide information at the point of sale to consumers.
But let us not pretend that, simply because the Greens are rushing to put this legislation forward before national consistency, that means that they are in any way doing something that is not a well-held principle or something to be led by other jurisdictions, not the ACT, in a way that has been very well established throughout the COAG process.
There is an impact on business. The minister herself highlighted the impact on that. Whether it is 50 nationally or whether it is a smaller number locally of seven, the impact is likely to be significant. And there is an impact on business of having to do something different in every jurisdiction. If you are a fast-food outlet with perhaps 50 outlets, maybe dispersed across Australia, if you have then got to do something different in every outlet the implications of that are quite significant. Likewise, locally, the last thing that we want is for a small business to be told, “Right, we have got this legislation; this is what you have got to do; you have got to label all your foods—the baklava, the hot dogs; you have got to have the labelling on it,” and then find that that regulation changes or those guidelines change. We have got to make sure that we are
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