Greens and Xenophon push for changes to “Made in Australia” labels

  • July 24, 2009
  • Daniel Palmer

The Greens and Senator Xenophon will introduce a bill for ‘truth in food labelling’ when Parliament resumes next month. The bill seeks changes to eligibility requirements for using the Made in Australia label.
“The ‘Made in Australia’ label is currently being given to some foods that only incur half of their total manufacturing costs in Australia,” Greens Leader Bob Brown remarked.

“Most consumers want to do what they can to support Australian workers and businesses by buying foods that are genuinely home-grown, produced in Australia. At the moment those well meaning consumers are being deceived by confusing laws and deprived of a genuine choice.”

According to Roy Morgan data, more than two thirds of consumers buy Australian made ‘whenever possible’ or ‘often’.

“Under the Greens’ bill the use of the term ‘Made in Australia’ will be limited to those products that are 100% made in Australia. This will give consumers real choice and support those dinkum Australian producers who are creating jobs on Australian soil,” Senator Brown suggested.

Senator Brown said the Greens moved to amend the 1998 Howard Government legislation that created the current ‘Made in Australia’ labelling laws, but were opposed by the old parties. He made the comments as the unions intensified their ‘Made in Australia’ procurement push.


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One Response to “Greens and Xenophon push for changes to “Made in Australia” labels”

  1. Brett Watson on December 3rd, 2009 8:11 am

    The terms “Australian Made” and “Australian Owned” do not reveal the actual level of Australian inputs and are almost, Un-Australian in their usage requirements. To remedy this problem a new “Australian Authenticity Logo” has been unveiled. Visit http://www.ozcompliance.com.au to see what is behind the labels and logos such as Australian Made.

    Oz Compliance makes a qualified statement as to the Australian level of inputs for Content, Ownership, Manufacture and its Packed Status. At last an Australian Authenticity logo that is Truth in labelling.

    Consumers have the right to know where their Food and Goods come from. Without Oz Compliance they cannot make an informed choice, regardless if it is a health choice, a cost choice, a patriotic choice or one of principle.

    OzCOMPliance provides a reasonable basis upon which to compare any two items. It provides a means of comparison that gives a truthful impression which in itself, makes it unlike any other Country of Origin label (COOL) or similar “Trust Mark” that we are all familiar with.

    By looking for the OzCOMPliance Logo, you can see for yourself just how much of any item is actually Australian by the stated percentage scores for Content, Owned, Made and Packed.

    Truth, however disenchanting is better than falsehood, however comforting. -Schweitzer