Page 480 - Week 02 - Tuesday, 21 February 2012
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Greens were in the briefing as well—about whether, for example, existing qualifications would count or not. Another issue is about size. As many of these establishments are quite small and have a regular changeover of staff, if your food safety supervisor moves on, is there a period of grace between them moving on and you getting a new food safety supervisor? They are the sorts of questions that were not answered.
Again, I have been told that that will be resolved, negotiations are going on, there is engagement with the community and that will be advised. But I am concerned that the government was unable to provide those answers. Although we have assurances from the government that those two issues will be addressed, the Canberra Liberals are supporting this legislation today on the presumption that it will be addressed. But I look forward to receiving assurances and looking at that in the regulations and in further briefings and seeing that those issues have been resolved.
There will be a website—this is the sort of name and shame element of it—where breaches will be recorded and it will be accessible to Canberrans. The problem at the moment is that that website is not up and running. Again, we have got pretty vague responses in terms of when the website will go live with that information. And again, the Canberra Liberals support this on the presumption that this will be done in a timely manner.
I do not think we should overstate the importance of this legislation. The important thing is to make sure that what we are doing on the ground is working effectively. Although these are incremental measures, they will not necessarily make a difference on the ground if we do not have that proactive regime of making sure that food establishments are complying with the act and food safety standards. That is particularly true of restaurants where language can be a barrier and an understanding of the requirements is not necessarily clear. I know that is an issue we have addressed at the briefings. It remains a challenge for the government and the Health Directorate to make sure they translate these additional steps of legislation into effective implementation on the ground.
We have seen a number of issues in this area. We have seen some public issues where there have been some concerns where people got very sick. In fact, we have had an issue where people were hospitalised and another issue which ended in tragedy. But we have also seen the Auditor-General’s review, and that has made it quite clear that there are some measures that are just not being effectively implemented. I have sought assurances that they are being addressed, and at some stage, no doubt, we will follow up and get a more up-to-date review on how that is being implemented.
Today the Canberra Liberals support these legislative amendments. If they are implemented correctly, if they are done with the intent that has been suggested by the government, then they will be effective. But there is a risk that if we do not implement them effectively, what we will see on the ground in reality with things like the food safety supervisors is additional regulatory burden, additional expense for business, but no real and tangible improvement in food safety for ACT residents.
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