[Greens-Media] kick start for Fair Trade tea and coffee

[Manderson, Roland]

ACT Greens MLA Deb Foskey Media Release

24 Aug 2005

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ACT Legislative Assembly provides a kick start for Fair Trade tea and coffee
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ACT Greens MLA Deb Foskey today successfully moved for the ACT Legislative Assembly to use Fair Trade products such as tea and coffee.

"We will be the first parliament in Australia to aim to serve Fair Trade products. And while I am sorry our motion has been watered down by the Government so there are qualifications over the Assembly's preference for these beverages, first steps are nonetheless important" Dr Foskey said today.

"I am surprised the Government also opposed my move to have the Assembly show that it uses Fair Trade products." 

"I do welcome the Treasurer's commitment to explore the support for Fair Trade products across ACT Government purchasing, and his acknowledgment that the benefits of a fair approach to trade in agricultural and manufactured products does deliver real benefits to otherwise disadvantaged communities around the world."

"We look forward to hearing back from him on his move to put such plans in place across the Territory" Dr Foskey said.

The motion as moved:

That, this Assembly

1.	
recognising the imbalance in bargaining power between the small-scale growers of tea and coffee and the much larger international businesses that purchase, distribute and market the bulk of that product in the developed world, and  

2.	
acknowledging 
a.the capacity of organisations and businesses to accept the responsibility for the social and environmental impact of their purchasing decisions and
b.the significance of such actions both practically and symbolically

3.	
adopts a policy of the preferential purchase of tea and coffee from accredited "fair trade" suppliers in every possible situation

4.
indicate its preference for fair trade products whenever they are served to visitors and the public

5.
calls on the ACT Government to pursue a similar policy through its agencies and its activities 


(The Treasurer then moved to qualify paragraph 3, and deleted paras 4 and 5.)


================================
Roland Manderson   Media Advisor
ACT   Greens    MLA  Deb  Foskey  
Legislative Assembly for the ACT 
ph(02)62050551      m 0412241379
==== www.act.greens.org.au ===== 
  
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