Australian Made Campaign welcomes CoOL recommendations

The Senate Committee for Rural and Regional Affairs’ recommendations on country of origin labelling (CoOL) laws will make it easier to identify genuine Australian products and build confidence in Australia’s food labelling system, the Australian Made Campaign has said.

The committee made recommendations following an inquiry into amendments to the laws in a Bill drafted by the Greens in 2012.

The committee recommended that:

1. The Bill as drafted should not be passed.
2. The government should consider developing a more effective country of origin framework (including a more effective definition of “substantially transformed”), which better balances the interests of consumers, primary producers and manufacturers.
3. The government should consider creating a ‘negative list’ for processes that do not satisfy the “substantial transformation” test.
4. The government should develop a public education campaign for new CoOL guidelines.

At the hearing for the inquiry, Australian Made rejected the proposed Bill and called for the definition of substantial transformation to be restricted and encouraged the use of a negative list for processes that do not satisfy the substantial transformation test. These suggestions would see Australian Consumer Law on par with the rules for using the Australian Made, Australian Grown logo.

“It is encouraging that our voice has been heard and our suggestions have been taken on board,” said Australian Made Campaign Chief Executive Ian Harrison.

“Our hope is that the government will act on these recommendations swiftly, to make it more difficult for products with high imported content and minimal local processing to pass themselves off as Australian.”