AUSVEG is calling on Opposition Leader Bill Shorten and the Australian Labor Party (ALP) to step away from partisan politics and publicly state their position on reforms to Australia’s Country of Origin Labelling system.

This follows comments from the Opposition Leader yesterday suggesting that the Federal Government had failed to do something about Country of Origin Labelling reform. 

“This issue should be bigger than partisan politics and it is time the Labor Party stepped up to the plate and put forward a strong position of its own on Country of Origin Labelling,” said AUSVEG Deputy CEO Andrew White.

“AUSVEG is yet to see a formal public policy commitment from the ALP on food labelling, despite the process of reforming the current system receiving broad support from a number of other political parties and independent politicians.”

“We are now closer than ever to seeing something done and we’d like to see the ALP show its hand on this issue given the widespread public support for doing something meaningful to change Country of Origin Labelling laws.  We have a once in a lifetime opportunity as part of the current consultation process to do something lasting and worthwhile.”

“The right of Australian consumers to know where their food comes from should be more important than political posturing. It is time the ALP declared that they too will support Aussie consumers and farmers wishes by declaring their support for meaningful Country of Origin Labelling reform.”

AUSVEG is the leading horticultural body representing Australia’s 9,000 vegetable and potato growers.

AUSVEG yesterday launched a new video that exposes the massive failure of Australia’s current food labelling laws to provide consumers with meaningful information about the food they are buying.

The Federal Government has committed to reforming Country of Origin Labelling laws and has released a community survey as part of its national consultation process working to identify key areas to address with the reforms.

The Cool Change video by AUSVEG is part of a new campaign to highlight the confusion of everyday Australian shoppers when trying to decipher the current ambiguous country of origin labels.

“AUSVEG supports the work the Federal Government is undertaking to enact reform including consumer testing to ensure any reform has popular support.  It is important that we get this right and we’d encourage consumers to participate in the feedback process,” said Mr White.

“However, any reform to Australia’s Country of Origin Labelling system must include two key aspects – eliminating the misleading and ambiguous term ‘Made in’ from food labelling, and identifying the specific country of origin of key ingredients.”

AUSVEG encourages all Australian consumers to provide input on the labelling changes by completing the survey by visiting www.industry.gov.au/cool. Consumers can join AUSVEG’s campaign for better labelling of food ingredients using the hashtag ‘coolchange’. The AUSVEG video can be viewed here.

MEDIA CONTACT:  Andrew White, Deputy CEO – AUSVEG

Phone: (03) 9882 0277, Mobile: 0409 989 575 Email: andrew.white@ausveg.com.au