Senator GREIG (10:09 AM) —In view of that, perhaps the procedure that we should go forward with now is for me to seek leave to move Democrats amendments Nos 14, 15 and 16 together.

The TEMPORARY CHAIRMAN (Senator Knowles)—Senator Greig, we were going to deal only with amendment No. 14, because there are amendments proposed to your amendment. Please proceed with Democrats amendment No. 14.

Senator GREIG —I move Democrats amendment No. 14:

The amendment principally addresses one of the major concerns that we have with regard to the bill, and that is the proposed membership of the Food Standards ANZ board. That issue was discussed at great length during the public hearings. The bill as it stands removes one of the current positions on the ANZFA board—the member who was an officer of a state or territory authority having responsibility for matters relating to public health—and increases the possible number of other members from the current two to between one and five. At the same time, the bill increases the fields of expertise from which other members can be appointed by including international trade, small business, the food industry and primary food production. A concern raised in submissions and discussed at length with witnesses at the public hearing in particular is that this list of fields of expertise potentially allows an undesirable overrepresentation of commercial interests on the board. Even the department acknowledged that the board could be stacked with, say, five members all with industry interests.

We Democrats believe that there is good cause for some food industry representation on the Food Standards ANZ board and acknowledge that it is unlikely a board would become completely stacked with industry interests. However, this is no excuse for complacency. The board's primary interest is public health and safety. It is not an instrument for the food industry. It is even less acceptable for it to be an instrument for advancing WTO agendas. The Democrats believe a very good case was made by a number of submissions and witnesses for an increase in representation from medical science, public health and food science, including a representative from the National Health and Medical Research Council.

We Democrats are conscious of the very serious medical consequences of ongoing stress arising from food anaphylaxis. We are also well aware of the increasing efforts of food producers to develop and commercialise so-called novel foods. Accordingly, the Democrats amendment principally seeks to increase the size of the board to 12, expand the fields of expertise in the non-mandated components of the board, place a nominee of the National Health and Medical Research Council on the board and limit the number of members with commercial expertise. Amendments Nos 14, 15 and 16, to which I referred initially, will go to the heart of that, although we are dealing here just with No. 14. I believe these changes to the board will significantly strengthen the health and public safety focus of Food Standards ANZ and hope that they warrant the committee's support.