Stakeholder consultation on the green paper

Public consultation has played a significant role in developing the National Food Plan to date, and the Australian Government looks forward to stakeholders continuing to play a key role in the next stage of the plan’s development.

Stakeholder consultation on the National Food Plan was undertaken from 17 July 2012 to 30 September 2012.

There were many ways people could give feedback on the green paper and help shape the government’s approach to food policy, including providing a written submission, attending a public meeting or contributing to online discussion on our National Food Plan blog.

The Green Paper attracted considerable public interest, with:

• more than 700 people who attended 28 public meetings across Australia
• more than 120 people who attended one of eight CEO-level roundtable meetings
• 401 written submissions.

A summary of stakeholder feedback was prepared to present common themes arising from consultation and summarise complex viewpoints. The summary is not intended to be exhaustive and it is not possible to capture every single view raised over months of consultations in this report. It should not be considered a substitute for reading the submissions on the National Food Plan website.

For the purpose of preparing the summary we have not attempted to verify information provided by stakeholders. Inclusion of views in this summary should not be seen as endorsement of those views by the Australian Government.

• Summary of stakeholder feedback received on the National Food Plan green paper PDF [601 KB]
• Summary of stakeholder feedback received on the National Food Plan green paper  Word [1 MB]

Written submissions

View the submissions received to date on the green paper.

Public meetings

[expand all]

Australian Capital Territory

New South Wales

Northern Territory

Queensland

South Australia

Victoria

Tasmania

Western Australia

In conjunction with the public consultation process, the Australian Government also held:

•  meetings with state and territory governments
• a small number of high-level roundtables with invited experts and key representatives from across the food system supply chain.
• A Forum on Food Sector Relationships will be held on 24 September 2012 to help the government better understand options for better managing supermarket and supplier relationships. These options include making improvements to current arrangements, implementing a new mandatory code or possible oversight mechanisms (e.g. an ombudsman).

• Public meeting presentation PDF [1.4 MB]
• Forum on Food Sector Relationships Communiqué PDF [99 KB]
• Media Release: Improving food sector relations - 25 September 2012

Online discussion and the use of social media

Stakeholders were able to provide feedback by contributing to the online discussion on the green paper at the National Food Plan blog and following us on Twitter (@NatFoodPlan). Although we’ve closed the blogs to comment from the end of the green paper consultation period, you’re still be able to visit the blog and read the blog posts.