A SENATE inquiry will scrutinise a government decision to relax import restrictions on beef, amid fears it will threaten Australia's status as a BSE-free country.
Liberal Senator Bill Heffernan and the independent Senator Nick Xenophon said yesterday they had the numbers to call an inquiry.
Senator Heffernan accused the Government of doing the bidding of the large multinational processors which dominate the local meat industry.
"It's plain bloody stupid and I'm going to raise hell about it," he said. The lifting of import restrictions on previously BSE (mad cow disease) affected countries such as the United States, Canada, Britain and other European nations has also brought into focus Australia's chaotic labelling laws, which are already the subject of a Senate inquiry.
Buoyed by a strong Australian dollar, the lifting of the blanket ban is expected to generate a flood of processed foods on the market, manufactured from foreign meat yet still bearing an Australian-made tag.
A vast array of processed meat products, from pies and sausage rolls to beef jerky and salami, will be permitted to use the 'Made in Australia' label without any of the meat coming from Australia.
Most consumers will not be able discern the difference between a genuine Australian meat pie and one made from foreign beef, for example, because under food labelling standards all a manufacturer has to do to take advantage of the 'Made in Australia' tag is prove that the imported meat has been "substantially transformed" here and that 50 per cent or more of the production costs have been incurred in Australia.
On Friday, the Senate's Economics Legislation Committee will hear evidence for and against amendments to existing country of origin labelling laws, proposed by Senator Xenophon, the Australian Greens leader, Bob Brown, and the National's Senate leader, Barnaby Joyce.
"Current labelling laws are woefully inadequate and inherently misleading," said Senator Xenophon. "And now they are also potentially dangerous, given the Government is hell-bent on opening up our market to BSE-affected countries."
NSW Greens MP John Kaye said Australia's labelling shambles meant that consumers wishing to avoid the risks of mad cow disease would be unable to do so.
"Consumers would expect that 'made in Australia' means just that, but it doesn't," said Dr Kaye. "Bringing mad cow nation beef into Australia is bad enough but the nation's food ministers are allowing it to turn up in products carrying the 'made in Australia' label."
A joint statement by the Trade Minister, Simon Crean, the Agriculture Minister, Tony Burke, the Health Minister, Nicola Roxon, and the parliamentary secretary for health, Mark Butler, said that an independent review of scientific evidence found it was safe to import beef from BSE-affected countries and still maintain a high level of protection for public public, provided risk management mechanisms were put in place.
The statement also said that given Australia's competitive position in domestic and export beef markets, the new rules were not expected to lead to any significant increased level of beef imports into Australia.
But the Australian Beef Association said it was appalled at the Government's decision, taken at a time when real cattle prices were sinking as low as those recorded during the 1974-78 cattle depression.
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