South Australian Independent Senator Nick Xenophon says that weak food labelling laws are costing Australian farmers their jobs. A bill needs to be presented to the Senate which would eliminate loopholes that currently allow foreign produce to be labelled as ‘Made in Australia’.
Senator Xenophon says under current law, manufacturers can label their product with ‘Made in Australia’ as long as the box and label are locally made. “We don’t have truth in labelling laws right now, current labelling laws are a sad joke, you have a situation where a label could say Australian made even when half or more of the production occurs overseas. That can’t be tenable, that’s not fair and it is actually driving people off the land”.
The Act currently defines two country of origin claims ‘Product of Australia’ and ‘Australian Made’. Products carrying the ‘Product of Australia’ claim must be 100 per cent made in Australia from all or nearly all Australian ingredients. Products can claim to be ‘Australian Made’ when they are substantially transformed here with at least 50 per cent of the cost of production incurred in Australia.
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