Media - Nick Xenophon - Independent Senator for South Australia

Independent Senator for South Australia Nick Xenophon says misleading food labelling is confusing consumers and costing farmers their livelihoods.

“If we are what we eat, we have a right to know what we are eating,” Nick said.

Senator Xenophon will introduce a Private Members Bill into the Senate designed to eliminate loopholes that allow foreign produce to be labelled ‘Australian Made’ and to also eliminate misuse of terms like ‘fresh’ and ‘daily’.

“Australian Made should mean wholly made in Australia,” Nick said. “It should be illegal to call a product Australian Made, when a significant amount of it comes from overseas.

Senator Xenophon will be joining Riverland fruit grower and food labelling campaigner Ron Gray in the Rundle Mall to highlight the loopholes in current labelling laws, providing a number of examples currently on supermarket shelves.

“Right now you can label a fruit juice as ‘Made in Australia’ even if half the juice comes from overseas as long as the box and the label are locally made,” Nick said.

“A company shouldn’t be able to call its juice ‘Daily Juice’ when it is reconstituted,” Nick said.

“Our current labelling laws make it so hard for consumers to find real Australian products, it’s virtually impossible to be sure you are actually buying Australian.” Nick said.

Riverland irrigator Ron Gray says the weak labelling laws are costing Australian farmers their jobs, making the drought and the affects of global warming even more devastating.

“When Australian laws allow foreign food to be passed off as Australian made, you hurt Australian farmers,” Ron said.

“People think they’re buying juice made from Australia when it fact it has come from Chile, or Argentina, or Heaven knows where,” Ron said.

“Honest labelling laws protect consumers and they protect farmers.” Nick said.