Fish and chip shops still not forced to tell consumers if their fish are local or imported
Restaurants and fish and chip shops are still leaving consumers in the dark about the country of origin of their fish.
Karumba's Barramundi Discovery Centre - less than half the barramundi sold in Australian restaurants is actually caught in Australia. (Photo: Paul Sutherland: ABC Rural)
Seven months after a Senate Inquiry recommended mandatory country of origin labelling, it has not happened.
At restaurants, 70 per cent of the fish is imported, according to the Australian seafood industry's submission.
Barramundi is a good example of confusion.
It might come from Australia, Thailand or Vietnam and, of the 20,000 tonnes Australians eat a year, only 40 per cent is produced locally.
An independent's Bill in Federal Parliament to enforce the country of origin labelling on fish sold at restaurants was not supported by the Federal Government.
The Australian Seafood Alliance is campaigning for transparency, and chair Grahame Turk said restaurants should be brought into line with retail shops.
But he was frustrated with the lack of progress.
"It's a struggle, I must say," said Mr Turk.
"I got a lot of support from politicians, but there is a lot of opposition and in fact the minister (Barnaby Joyce) doesn't support it, so it's a struggle.
"But they did do it in the Northern Territory and it's worked very well."
The no case
Not everyone in the fishing industry wants restaurants to be forced to label Australian caught seafood.
Robert Pender is a professional fishermen in the Gulf of Carpentaria in Far North Queensland.
He said mandatory labelling was unnecessary, and good restaurants would be supporting locally caught fish anyway.
Mr Pender founded the group that promotes wild caught, with a sticker and website with the words 'That's Wild', in the shape of a fish.
He wants to see restaurants promote wild caught, or farmed fish, but said they should not forced to.
"Reputable restaurants should be using their own initiative and differentiating for their own clients under their own steam," said Mr Pender, from his office in Karumba in between fishing for barramundi, mackerels and salmon," he said.
"That gets away from legislation and the cost of having a regulator, the risk of fines.
"It would help promote farmed fish producers and the wild caught producers, even imported produce.
"We don't have a problem with imported fish."
New peak fishing body
Meanwhile, the Australian Seafood Alliance has received $500,000 from the Federal Government to pursue the task of forming a national peak body for seafood.
"The problem at the moment is that we are not funded," said Mr Turk.
He acknowledged it seemed like a lot of money for a feasibility study, but said it would take a lot of work and travel to canvass views around Australia.
"It either has to be funded by compulsory levy or voluntary contributions, and both have problems," Mr Turk said.
"If you tried to get a mandatory levy in place now, it wouldn't get up.
"If you depended on voluntary contributions, you'd have a whole lot of people who would look out the window when you passed the hat around."
The Northern Territory Seafood Council is very active and welcomes the funding.
"The formation of a national peak body will provide significant support to the State and Territory associations and allow us to concentrate on our regional issues, with support from a body that deals with the overarching issues that affect us all at a national level," said NT Seafood Council chief executive Katherine Winchester.
Source: ABC Rural News, Sarina Locke, July 30th 2015
Originally published as: Fish and chip shops still not forced to tell consumers if their fish are local or imported
