… A blow for consumers, industry, and environment

Today the Labor, National and Liberal Parties teamed up in the Senate to vote down a simple country of origin seafood labelling bill that was co-sponsored by the Greens and cross-benchers.

This Bill was proposed following a long campaign by an unusual alliance of commercial fishing industry and environmental groups and was featured in the popular SBS TV Series “What’s the Catch?”

The Bill was going to mandate for a simple and clear “local or imported” label for the retail sale of seafood.

Greens spokesperson for Fisheries , Senator Peter Whish-Wilson, said, “Even this simple, popular and well thought through proposal was too hard for Labor and Liberal.”

“This Bill was drafted in line with multi-partisan recommendations from a recent Senate Inquiry, yet the Government and Labor have decided to vote it down today.

“Better seafood labelling would have delivered better outcomes for consumers, the local seafood industry, and our marine environment.

“This Bill was to be the first step in the changes to seafood labelling needed to move towards a complete and holistic approach to seafood labelling in Australia.

“We desperately need to give consumers greater confidence and the ability to make purchasing decisions that don’t negatively impact on their health or the health of our oceans.

“Not only would this Bill have benefited our environment, local producers would have been better placed to compete with cheaper imported seafood of questionable origin.

“When you buy flake, you should have confidence that it is flake. When you buy flathead you should have confidence that it is actually flathead.

“The Northern Territory already has these laws and when they were introduced the value of the various sectors of the NT seafood industry grew four to eight-fold.

“Industry, consumers and environmental advocates are crying out for these changes and I am baffled as to why the Government and the opposition are playing delaying games.

“I will be consulting with stakeholders about what next steps the Greens will take on this issue. We aren’t going to let it go and will be campaigning strongly on it now and into the next election,” he concluded.
Greens spokesperson for Fisheries , Senator Peter Whish-Wilson