16 March 2009
DAFF09/100T

Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, Tony Burke
Launch of world’s first low-GI sugar
Parliament House, Canberra

(E&OE)

Thanks very much for the generous introduction. I want to acknowledge the traditional owners of the land that we meet on here today and their elders, past and present.

Can I acknowledge both Jim Turnour, the local MP covering Mossman Mill, and [Parliamentary Secretary Assisting the Minister for Health and Ageing] Senator Jan McLucas, who are both here, and acknowledge everybody who was involved with the project.

What an exciting day and an exciting announcement. I was hopeful when I first heard about the low-GI sugar that it was going to create a new permission slip to consume unlimited amounts of sugar. It falls short of that.

But it actually provides a new option in the market which Australian innovation is providing for the market, as the first providers in the world of low GI sugar. And the GI figures for sugar normally are 61. This gets it down to around the 51 or 50 mark, which provides an option for people pursuing a low-GI diet to still have a diet that’s sweet. And that is meeting a consumer demand in the best of ways.

So what we have today is the result of long-term innovation. Often when you get these innovation programs, whether it was the provision for a modern industry, whether it is what the sugar industry reform program put forward, people say, “Well, what can you do with a basic product? What can you do with something as simple as sugar, to be able to innovate?” Well, the answer is extraordinary.

It was in February last year when Jim Turnour and I went up [to the Mossman Mill]. And when I was told that we were going to be seeing a place that produced low-GI sugar – you’re never sure if you’re being conned. I did suspect that Jim was having a lend of me on this one. But it’s true. And to be able to have a natural sweetener that still meets the low-GI requirements is fantastic.

There’s a lot of history to the Mossman Mill. And the mill operators who I met when I was up there, Graham and his son Craig, and I met with Alex and Nick, talked about their experiences and challenges in the sugar industry.

And I could see that there was a different approach to what so commonly is the approach around the world, which is for people just to say, “Yeah, the market’s getting tougher. The world’s getting tougher.” And just saying, “That’s how it is.”

To combine with the rise in science - Doctors David Kannar and Barry Kitchen - and to say, “Well, we’re going to go further than where anyone’s gone.” And it might sound absurd that you can have sugar, of all products, with low GI. But we’re going to innovate. We’re going to be in the frontline. And the fact that no one else in the world has done that will not stop us.

And we’ve landed now with a fantastic announcement that has made its way from Mossman, north of Cairns, to supermarket shelves around Australia. And I’ve no doubt will be found on supermarket shelves around the world.

So what we launch today is the best of Australian science, the best of Australian innovation, and something that everybody should be tremendously proud of. And importantly, what it means for our own eating habits is a product that essentially is associated with fun, which I think is a fair description of how we all associate sugar - eating sweet food is always some of those happiest moments - we do so with a clear conscience. And do so in the way that we always have, with the low-GI option, an option for consumers that was never available before, but is now available because of the innovation of some extraordinary Queenslanders.

To both the scientific community and the millers themselves, and to all of you, can I provide very sincerely and very directly my personal congratulations, the congratulations of the Australian Government, and the deep thanks of every Australian who will now have an extra option when it comes to sugar.

Well done. And I declare the sugar launched.

ENDS