Mad cow disease draft laws pass Senate
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CANBERRA, March 15 AAP
March 15 2010, 7:41PM
Agriculture Minister Tony Burke's commitment to protect Australia from mad cow disease is one step closer to becoming law.
The federal government lifted the 10-year ban on imports from countries affected by bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), commonly known as mad cow disease, earlier this month.
But community outrage at the scrapping of the import risk analysis prompted Mr Burke to reinstate the safety measure.
Nationals Senate leader Barnaby Joyce said he and Liberal senator Richard Colbeck's bill, introduced to the upper house two weeks ago, made that commitment law.
"We have put down in paper form what the minister has said in an audible form the other day," Senator Joyce told parliament on Monday.
"To show that he is genuine, the Labor Party should be part of this bill."
Under the legislation, only beef imports assessed under the old, tougher, criteria would be allowed into Australia.
The minister must also be satisfied that the country imported beef comes from has a birth-to-death traceability program to identify an animal's origin.
That traceability must be at least as rigorous as Australia's National Livestock Identification Scheme.
Finally, country of origin labelling standards which make it clear where imported beef comes from will be implemented.
Senate Manager of Government Business Joe Ludwig said there had not been enough time to consider the draft laws so Labor couldn't support them.
"This is a hasty piece of legislation which the opposition is keen to simply rubber stamp through this chamber," he said.
The bill was, however, backed by the Australian Greens, Independent senator Nick Xenophon and Family First senator Steve Fielding to pass 36 votes to 25.
The Food Importation (Bovine Meat Standards) Bill 2010 now goes to the lower house.
