Announcement date
25 November 2023
Link to announcement
Albanese Government delivers for consumers and Australian fishing industry | Ministers for the Department of Industry, Science and Resources
Problem being addressed
Consumer access to country of origin information for seafood in hospitality settings currently relies on businesses’ willingness to voluntarily provide this information, either through signage on menus, display boards or in response to customer queries. This lack of easily accessible and consistently displayed information means consumers may be unable to make educated or informed purchasing decisions for seafood in hospitality settings in line with their personal preferences.
Proposal
The Decision Regulatory Impact Statement (RIS) considers options for standardising seafood Country of Origin Labelling (CoOL) in hospitality settings.
- Option 1: Maintaining the status quo.
- Option 2: Australian / Imported / Mixed (AIM) model.
- Option 3: Country model.
For Option 1, hospitality business may voluntarily inform consumers of seafood origin.
For Option 2 the AIM model, a new information standard is proposed under Australian Consumer Law (ACL) requiring hospitality businesses to indicate, for each dish on their menu that contains seafood, whether the seafood in that dish is: Australian (A), Imported (I), or Mixed (M).
For Option 3, under ACL hospitality businesses would be required to indicate the country of origin for each dish on their menu that contains seafood - for example, Barramundi (Thailand).
The Decision RIS recommends Option 2 as the option having the greatest net benefit and most likely to achieve the objectives of seafood CoOL.
The OIA’s assessment is that the RIS was adequate to inform a final decision in accordance with the requirements of the Regulatory Impact Analysis Guide for Ministers’ Meetings and National Standard Setting Bodies.
Assessed Impact Analysis outcome
Compliant decision RIS