CoOL bill threatens Australian jobs, AFGC claims

The Greens’ Country of Origin Labelling (CoOL) bill jeopardises Australian export opportunities and food manufacturing jobs, the Australian Food and Grocery Council (AFGC) claims.

Gary Dawson, CEO of the AFGC, says the Greens bill fails to provide clear information about where the value-adding takes place on processed foods.

“The Greens’ Country of Origin Labelling proposal fails its own test in protecting Australian jobs by effectively ignoring the economic value-add of the nearly 300,000 Australians employed directly in the food and grocery processing sector, including 8000 in Tasmania,” said Dawson.

“And worse, it expressly bars companies from using ‘Made in Australia’ on their labelling to indicate that the jobs in the manufacture of the product are here in Australia. This will not only mislead Australian consumers, but also remove any export advantage Australian food manufacturing companies have in promoting Australian premium brands particularly in Asian markets.”

“Under this Bill, which solely focuses on the origin of food ingredients, chocolate produced in a factory in Tasmania would not be able to carry ‘Made in Australia’ on its label because a key ingredient, cocoa, has to be imported. This is despite the factory mixing and transforming ingredients to make chocolate and employing many people in that process.

“If we are to capitalise on the export opportunities presented in Asia in coming decades, we need a competitive domestic food processing industry. Yet this Bill has the potential to penalise food manufacturers and hamper efforts through increased regulatory compliance and costs.

“It would be a great irony if the implementation of Country of Origin Labelling regulations - that imposed additional costs but failed to provide consumer information on where products were manufactured - contributed to driving Australian jobs offshore.”