27 May No-brainer! Federal Government endorses KAP’s Seafood country of origin labelling

16 May 2024

We all have the right to know where the fish on our plate comes from!  Katter’s Australian Party Leader, and Member for Traeger, Robbie Katter has said today, as he welcomed the news that the Federal Labor Government have adopted KAP policy for seafood country of origin labelling.

“Three years ago, I introduced a bill to the Queensland Parliament mandating that Queenslanders were clearly told where their fish comes from,” Mr Katter said.

“It still beggars’ belief, but Brisbane’s Labor party voted to keep Queenslanders in the dark and sound the start of the obliteration of our local seafood industry.

“Buried down on page 140 of the budget papers is a handful of words that bought joy to my heart: ‘mandatory country of origin labelling for seafood in hospitality’ – just beautiful.

“Unfortunately for Queenslanders, we know that it’ll be harder and harder to find any home grown and caught Queensland fish,” the member for Traeger said.

Only last week the Minister for Agricultural Industry Development and Fisheries and Minister for Rural Communities signed off on the demise of yet more rural communities, and the commercial fishing industry.

“This is what is just so bizarre!” Mr Katter said.

“On one hand we have the Brisbane Labor party sucking up to international bureaucrats in Paris killing off our hard-working industry, and their Canberra Labor counterparts are putting in place sensible reforms to make sure that we know exactly what foreign country our fish on the plate comes from!

“You just can’t write this stuff.

“I put in the legislation in 2021 to give Queenslanders the choice between foreign and Australian fish – but now it’ll be a choice between unregulated, unsafe, and exploited fisheries from China, Thailand, or the West Coast of Africa,” Mr Katter said.

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