Senator FORSHAW (10:17 AM) —I cannot let the parliamentary secretary's allegation pass that the opposition are only interested in the interests of consumer groups. We offer no apology for supporting the proposition that consumer organisations have a real role to play in this area. Anybody who suggests otherwise is flying in the face of reality. We are happy to stand alongside the Democrats and, no doubt, the Greens and be on the public record as supporting their vital interest in this issue.

Senator Tambling, playing politics as he does, suggested that that was our only interest and that somehow we had ignored the legitimate interests of other areas, such as science. Yet he then went on to point out the very fact that it is the Democrats amendment and our own amendments that expand the board by ensuring that there will be a representative of the National Health and Medical Research Council on the board—something the government opposes. Why you would oppose a representative of the pre-eminent health research body in this country being on the board of the food safety regulator, I cannot imagine, but the government does.

Senator Tambling also acknowledged that, in our amendment (3) on revised sheet 2206, which will come on soon, we are also proposing to have a recognition of the areas of food safety, biotechnology and veterinary science. So, if that is not ensuring that the interests of science and the various associated disciplines, such as veterinary science and biotechnology, are given a place alongside consumer interests, Senator Tambling must be reading different documents from those read by the rest of us.