JOURNALIST: The Federal Government at a national level has been talking about improving food labelling  for nine years and it now may be about to do something. The Industry and Science Minister and Federal Member for Groom based around the Toowoomba Range Ian Macfarlane joins me now and it looks like the Federal Government may be about to correct this. Ian Macfarlane, good morning to you.

IAN MACFARLANE: Good Morning Steve and I do need to correct one statement and that is that this issue hasn’t been around for nine years, it’s been around for thirty years. It’s been around since I first went into public life as a member of the Graingrowers Association and certainly since the late 80s it’s been an issue that the National Farmers Federation has grappled with as they’ve tried to sort out equity for farmers and obviously protect consumers. So, I have to say, the time has come where there is to be some hard decisions made and those decisions will impact on manufacturers and processors here in Australia and those costs will invariably get passed on to consumers.

Consumers are right; we do need a system that works. I instigated a House of Representatives committee inquiry into this last year, perhaps fortuitously, that committee reported just before Christmas.  I was already prior to this latest issue, in discussions with the committee chairman Rowan Ramsey about how we can implement something that actually means what it should mean to the consumer who goes into the supermarket and has to work out whether these goods are in fact made from Australian products or are imported, or a combination of both.

JOURNALIST: Now that report that was delivered by your committee just before Christmas, what did you recommend? The belief of the listeners of Queensland is that the big food companies must just donate so much money to political parties that nothing ever gets done.

IAN MACFARLANE: Well yes, that’s a very cynical view, but look I could perhaps understand why people are becoming frustrated, but the committee has made a set of recommendations and I will respond to those recommendations. The reality is that I, along with Minister for Agriculture Barnaby Joyce, together we’re going to make a submission to Cabinet, and three other Ministers … [interrupted].

JOURNALIST: When?

IAN MACFARLANE:  Well the Minister for Agriculture and I will be making a submission to Cabinet within the next month, but at the moment what we’re doing is distilling that report. I’ve already sat down with the committee chairman twice and I’m sitting down with him again in a much larger group made up of the relevant Ministers. We are determined to get a system which is more than words. So we are looking at a symbol where someone can walk into a supermarket and say ‘yes, that is entirely Australian’, or ‘that’s ninety per cent Australian in produce’, or ‘there’s no Australian produce in this’.

Of course, this is not going to fix all the issues and parallel to this we look at our biosecurity and in terms of quarantine and issues relating to the inspection of foods when they come into Australia. In the case of the berries of course, it was marked ‘Made in China’ and people made a conscious decision, assuming they could see it on the label and it was there in print … [Interrupted].

JOURNALIST: I have a question about that; the print is so small that you need a magnifying glass to read?

IAN MACFARLANE: Well that’s right and one of the recommendations that chairman Rowan Ramsey’s committee made is that the print of where the product is made and the make-up of the ingredients is actually thirty per cent or maybe fifty per cent larger than the surrounding print. That is a great suggestion. At the same time though I think that we need some sort of symbol and that’s what today’s and tomorrow’s discussions are centring on, that will allow people, even without their glasses, to basically look at a product and say, ‘yep, I recognise that symbol, that’s made in Australia’, or ‘that has more than fifty per cent Australian produce in it’.

JOURNALIST: Will there be a difference noted about produce versus packaging?

IAN MACFARLANE: Absolutely.

JOURNALIST: Listeners have said that when the label says ‘comes from imported and local produce’, the local part is the packaging and this enrages consumers.

IAN MACFARLANE: Well that’s right and I have to say that was a compromise that was brought in almost twenty years ago which has done absolutely nothing and one thing I can assure your listeners Steve, is that when we do come up with a proposal, we will differentiate between the fact that it’s processed or packaged in Australia, so it may say ‘packaged in Australia from fifty per cent Australian produce’ or ‘fully imported produce’. It can’t hedge its bets by saying ‘imported’ and/or ‘Australian produce’. It actually will have to delineate in percentage terms between what they are and again, that’s what we’re trying to do with the symbol.

JOURNALIST: Now I spoke with Barnaby Joyce on Friday and he made this blunt observation about what we’re putting in our mouths. Plays audio: “Hepatitis A comes from what they call the oral faecal route. That is a polite word for saying, poo going into people’s mouths.”

JOURNALIST: Now when I spoke with Prime Minister Tony Abbott he said companies shouldn’t poison their customers and have obligations to make their products safe. What is the Federal Government going to do to FSANZ, the body the Federal Government and State Health Ministers charge with protecting our healthy food standards? What is the Government going to do to lift that standard?

IAN MACFARLANE: Well they are, as I’ve said, a parallel set of discussions that are going on at the moment, particularly involving the Health Minister and the Assistant Health Minister and also the Agriculture Minister. We need a system that zeros in on goods that are coming into Australia, so it won’t just be issues in relation to Hepatitis A. There have been claims which are in the process of being verified, that food from certain countries has way over the legal limit of lead and even in some cases, of arsenic, as a result of their domestic pollution. That testing regime which does need to be reviewed and is currently as I say part of a discussion and working group that’s going on between the Agriculture Minister and Health Ministers, needs to have a system that where something shows up in a random test, then the testing of goods from that country or that region is then given a great deal more emphasis, focus and intensity.

We need to do that if we’re going to have consumer confidence in goods that come from overseas. Steve, as an ex-farmer, I’ve got to say, I try to only eat Australian good and I guess it’s both from a safety and a patriotic perspective. We do have the safest fresh and processed food in the world right here in Australia.

JOURNALIST: I actually went out to the Port of Brisbane last month and had a good look around. I talked with a number of people who are in importing and exporting out there. They said to bring a container of goods into Australia from China at Brisbane costs around $500 but the same container would cost $20,000 to get landed in China because of the China’s costs they put on Australia’s imports, all of the processing, all of that stuff. It’s nowhere near a level playing field with someone that we’re seeking a free trade agreement with?

IAN MACFARLANE: Well that’s right and that’s an area where Minister for Trade and Investment Andrew Robb is working very hard on and part of the free trade agreement deal with many of those issues. In the end, consumers need to be aware that when they buy food from other countries that there are certain conditions where that food is grown that would not be acceptable here in Australia. As I say, I always encourage people to buy locally and buy Australian fresh and processed produce. In the end, it’s up to consumers what they are prepared to pay.

JOURNALIST: Alright so let’s summarise. So within four weeks, you and the other three Cabinet Ministers will take a submission to Cabinet to change and improve, for the benefit of consumers, food labelling standards in Australia?

IAN MACFARLANE: That’s correct.

JOURNALIST: And you’re currently reviewing the FSANZ, which the Food Standards Australia and New Zealand body that tests all imported food products into Australia, about how you can lift that standard of the testing regime?

IAN MACFARLANE: Yes that’s exactly right Steve, although I’m not involved in that second process because it’s the Agriculture Minister and Health Ministers, but that’s going on in parallel to the group that I’m working with.

JOURNALIST: Just one question that surprised me, I read this in the paper on the weekend, so it’s second hand, but the Nanna’s berries from Patties Foods are being tested for Hepatitis A overseas. Apparently there’s no laboratories that can either do it fast enough or can do it, can test for Hepatitis A here in Australia. Do you have any information on that?

IAN MACFARLANE: Well I don’t, that’s all part of the discussion that’s going on. We obviously have agreements with other countries in terms of their ability to test food that’s being exported here just as we test food for export to other countries. It’s a reciprocal arrangement. If that process is seen not to be adequate, then obviously the Ministers will address that issue.

JOURNALIST: One final thing that’s tangential but it is in relation to this. It’s in today’s Australian Financial Review, there’s a story that Coles and Woolworths may be about to sign the grocery code of conduct which they’ve been avoiding for a long time. Do you know anything about that?

IAN MACFARLANE: Well I do and Minister for Small Business Bruce Billson has done a fantastic job getting that voluntary code of conduct in place and encouraging, for want of a better word, the large supermarkets to get involved. The Minister has twisted their arms very well and we expect both of them to sign up. Again, that will be a plus not only for consumers put particularly for suppliers such as farmers.

JOURNALIST: A couple more quick questions while I’ve got you Minister if that’s alright. I received a message from a listener, so this is unverified but is it true that the only Australian manufacturer of frozen Australian grown vegetables, Simplot, is in difficulty or not far from closing down because well-known brands have moved to New Zealand to capture the Chinese market, via that country?

IAN MACFARLANE: No, that’s not correct. Simplot’s operation, particularly in Northern Tasmania is going from strength to strength. They’ve certainly had some challenges and those challenges have been in the area of industrial relations and in spiralling costs some of which are quite ridiculous and being imposed in some cases by local governments. We’ve being working with Simplot since I became the Minister for Industry, and now Science, while always covering the area of food manufacturing. They have restructured their operation; they’ve closed some of their operations in Bathurst NSW while still operations continuing there, but the investment they’ve got in Northern Tasmania is looking stronger by the day.

JOURNALIST: A quick one for my education if you don’t mind Minister. How many Australian food processors are left in the country now? So there’s obviously Patties Foods that’s come into a bit of difficulty, and Simplot. Are there any others?

IAN MACFARLANE: Well there are, I don’t have that list in front of me Steve, but it is an area where has been diminished numbers. Companies have moved offshore, particularly to New Zealand to overcome some of the costs that they face here in Australia particularly in relation to labour. Over the time that I’ve been the Minister, there has been a stabilisation in that area. We’ve obviously had the issue with SPC Ardmona and they are now going through a whole rebirth and putting a whole new range of products and branding and emphasising their manufacture and processing in Australia, from Australian goods. That has an attraction to consumers which is growing daily. So companies are rebuilding themselves after a tough period over the last ten years.

JOURNALIST: You know that Golden Circle, founded in Queensland Australia in 1947 or 1948, I forget which, recently eventually despite all assistance sold-up their operations here in Queensland and moved to New Zealand, getting their beetroot from Asia and hey presto in October last year they had do a recall notice because it had microbes in it. Have we cut our own throats when it comes to health standards?

IAN MACFARLANE: Well in the end, the consumer dictates how much they want to pay for goods and therefore how stringent the controls are that they’re prepared to accept. As I say if I’m buying food of any sort either in a tin or fresh produce, I try and buy Australian all the time, because I want the safest food I can get. Not all consumers make those decisions and where companies can move to another country and operate under a less stringent health regime, it’s then up to the consumer whether or not they buy those goods.

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Media contact: Minister Macfarlane's Office 02 6277 7070