Lack of consultation is causing problems in many areas of food production.
1. The Federal Government announced on 3 August 2010 in its National Food Plan that it would commence the development, with public consultation, of a national food plan. However, 9 months later there has been no indication of activity, even on its website. The paper “National food plan needed to protect food supplies” on the “Information to Pharmacists” website also supports this.
2. Seafood is in a similar position (see “Tests reveal mislabeling of fish”). A public consultation process would enable both of these activities to proceed at less cost than traditional consultancies and also help to properly address issues of direct concern to the public.
3. The June 2011 media exposure on Four Corners of cruelty to Australian cattle exported to Indonesia has devastated the cattle export industry. It has also been reported that almost 180,000 Australian livestock died over the past five years, often due to diarrhoea and heat stress while being transported by ship to foreign ports. The Minister had written to the live export industry in January expressing concern about the conditions yet the industry bodies that police the slaughter of Australian cattle overseas, particularly the Australian Meat Industry Council, have, it seems, turned a blind eye to the Indonesian practices for years. If this process had been transparent to the public then there is no doubt that it would have been stopped years ago and the industry would not be in the position it is today of halting a $1 billion trade and potentially losing hundreds of millions of dollars within weeks.
Thus government, industry and the public would benefit greatly from transparency in all of these issues.
