Stephen Cenatiempo:
Alright, time to talk federal politics with the Assistant Minister for Productivity, Competition, Charities and Treasury and the Member for Fenner, Dr Andrew Leigh. Andrew, good morning.
Andrew Leigh:
Good morning Stephen, great to be with you.
Cenatiempo:
There’s a couple of things I want to talk about this morning. One thing that – there’s been an investigation into the Australian food industry that has revealed widespread discrepancies between product labels and the actual origin of ingredients. Does this fit into your competition portfolio? Because this is a real concern. I know there’s been a lot of work by successive governments to try and strengthen food labelling, but you can’t, I guess, police what’s in the can, can you?
Leigh:
Well, it partly falls into consumer affairs and partly also border enforcement. So, we have fairly careful border testing, importer obligations, offshore assurance arrangements, enforcement by state and territory food regulators. Food inspection is subject to scrutiny, and importers face severe fines if food doesn’t meet Australian requirements.
Cenatiempo:
But you’re only ever going to be sort of do be able to do sort of random testing, aren’t you? I mean, it’s one of those things that is almost like trying to put a genie back into a bottle?
Leigh:
No country tests all the food that comes over its borders. As you say, you’re doing audits and following up on information. And you’re obviously referring to the Four Corners story, which aired last night.
Cenatiempo:
Yes.
Leigh:
Needless to say, that will have drawn the attention of regulators, and if firms are found to have been making misleading comments, then they’ll face severe penalties. Those penalties are substantially bigger than they were when we came to office. We’ve increased the maximum dollar penalty tenfold.
Cenatiempo:
How widespread do we think this is? Is it mostly canned products or is it – because, I mean, there were issues with seafood as well, from what I saw?
Leigh:
Well, we brought in place country of origin labelling for seafood, and that’s an important step forward from where things were before under the previous government. In terms of the tomato products, I’ve only seen the reports that you’ve referenced there. That’ll be up to the regulator to carefully investigate those allegations. If they find that firms have done the wrong thing, they should absolutely face the severe fines that are in place.
Cenatiempo:
Yeah, and I imagine there’s some geographical similarities to where this is happening. Now, I want to touch on something else. The major supermarkets apparently have agreed to pay farmers more, which is great. No problems with that. It should have happened a long time ago, but the flip side of this is we have to accept that consumer prices will go up accordingly?
Leigh:
Well, what we’ve seen over recent years is supermarket margins increasing a little. Depending on how you measure it, our supermarkets do look to be a little more profitable than those in other countries, which is what you’d expect, given that our big 2 have a more substantial market share than they have in most other countries. So, as you say, there’s ways of cutting the cake. One is for margins to take a bit of a squeeze. That would bring them down to more appropriately where they are in other countries.
We want to see farmers getting a fair deal, we want to see shoppers getting a fair deal and that’s why we’ve got the mandatory food and grocery code instead of the toothless code that existed under the former government. It’s also why we’ve got the price gouging laws to make sure that families are getting a fair deal at the checkout.
Cenatiempo:
Now, a lot of criticism has come from members of the government, and I found it extraordinary the number of people, including yourself, at the Labor National Conference who mentioned One Nation. Now, there’s been criticism of Pauline Hanson’s relationship with Gina Rinehart, a great Australian and an Australian billionaire but apparently when the PM hobnobs with Chinese billionaires, there’s nothing to see here, Andrew?
Leigh:
Well, the Prime Minister has attended a range of different events. We declare donations…
Cenatiempo:
But we’re only talking about one event though, Andrew, and that’s the dinner at the Point Piper Mansion of a Chinese billionaire. Why is it okay for him to do that, but it’s not okay for Pauline Hanson to associate with Gina Rinehart?
Leigh:
Well, what’s important is all donations are declared. And I think one of the things we’ve seen with One Nation is that they have repeatedly been pulled up by the AEC for failing to comply with disclosure laws. One Nation has a track record of not complying with those laws that are in place. It is vital that they do so and those laws have been tightened under Labor. Bringing down the disclosure thresholds and accelerating the time at which disclosure takes place. I think that’s appropriate. I think Australians deserve to know when there are donations being made and Labor complies with those laws.
Cenatiempo:
But you’re not concerned about the fact that the PM is dining at the private residence of a Chinese billionaire who’s been accused by the ATO of funneling money from China into Australia?
Leigh:
I don’t monitor the PM’s diary. I don’t monitor the donations that are being made. The Prime Minister…
Cenatiempo:
I’m not asking you that. I’m asking you how you feel about it?
Leigh:
Well, the Prime Minister has account for his diary, and the party makes appropriate disclosure donations. It very appropriately discloses donations. What we’ve seen though with Pauline Hanson is a very heavy reliance on a single billionaire whose views on reducing wages are very well known. And so when people are at the ballot box thinking about Pauline Hanson’s view on wages, they need to know that they’re heavily shaped by Gina Rinehart’s view that Australian workers are competing with those overseas earning $2 a day, as she said before.
Cenatiempo:
So Chinese billionaires are okay, Australian billionaires not. Now I want to talk about your own seat of Fenner. One of these ‘Voices For’ organisations has now been set up – the ‘Voices of Belconnen and Gungahlin’, which doesn’t really roll off the tongue, but they say that you’re a good bloke, but that’s not enough.
Leigh:
I welcome everybody who wants to get involved in politics Stephen. One of the challenges I think we’ve had, and you alluded to this in your editorial just before we chatted, is that we need to get more people engaged in politics. I think it’s a great thing if people are getting involved in politics, whether that’s ACT or federal politics. And I welcome people being part of that democratic conversation, putting their hand up to stand for election. When people stand against me, I’ll often touch base with them directly to wish them well. I think it is a great thing that people are involved in democracy, and I think it’s a great thing that more people are getting engaged in this way.
Cenatiempo:
Andrew, good to talk to you. We’ll catch up in a couple of weeks.
Leigh:
Likewise. Thanks Stephen.
Cenatiempo:
All the best. Dr Andrew Leigh, Assistant Minister for Productivity, Competition, Charities and Treasury and the Member for Fenner.