Principles
The Greens NSW believe:
1. Consumer behaviour can positively impact market practices. The choice of goods that do not involve ecological destruction, exploitation of workers, or the ill-treatment of animals can influence producers and retailers.
2. Consumer boycotts are a legitimate and democratic expression of community standards, and an effective method for encouraging companies to abandon practices that are inconsistent with consumer expectations of ethical behaviour.
3. The ability to reject goods or services that a consumer feels violates their ethical standards or beliefs, or may compromise their health or wellbeing, is a right that should be protected by accurate, transparent and informative labelling of all products.
4. Labelling should be accessible to people from diverse socio-economic and educational backgrounds.
5. Consumers have a right to be able to easily and conveniently access reliable information about the source of products, and the conditions under which they have been produced.
6. Governments have a responsibility to take steps to protect consumers from goods that are harmful to their health and safety.
7. Unnecessary overconsumption, wasteful packaging, and poor quality goods are resulting in poor environmental and social outcomes.
Aims
Labelling and consumer information
The Greens NSW are working towards:
8. Requiring all wholesalers and retailers to implement product traceability systems to identify the source of all components and ingredients and to make this information publicly available.
9. Mandatory labelling of products containing animal ingredients that clearly identifies the contents.
10. The implementation of a clear and enforceable system for labelling vegan and vegetarian products.
11. The implementation of consistent, enforceable and legislated standards for higher-welfare meat and egg products including ‘free-range’, to ensure the label is used only by companies whose production systems meet consumer expectations.
12. Mandatory labelling of all cosmetic, cleaning or medicinal products that have been tested on animals or contain ingredients tested on animals.
13. Mandatory labelling of all products containing palm oil or its derivatives.
14. Mandatory labelling of all products and packaging showing their ability to be recycled.
15. Independent scrutiny of product claims of benefits including:
15.1. Environmental claims such as ‘eco-friendly’ and ‘enviro-friendly’
15.2. Health benefits
15.3. Mood improvement benefits
Product and food safety
The Greens NSW are working towards:
16. Ensuring that product safety assessments are conducted by independent laboratories using the best available evidence and that the precautionary principle is applied to products that may pose a risk to human health or the environment.
17. World's best practice in alerting diners to venue food-hygiene standards, including compulsory 'scores on doors'. Nutrition labelling on menus and menu boards at all fast-serve food outlets, including salt, fat, saturated fat, and energy density,
Overconsumption
The Greens NSW are working towards:
18. Initiatives to encourage consumers to purchase smaller quantities and fewer unnecessary items to reduce the negative impacts caused by waste and overconsumption, including depletion of natural resources and exploitation of workers in developing nations.
19. Elimination of advertising that encourages excessive consumption.
Market monopolies
The Greens NSW are working towards:
20. Initiatives to enable and encourage people to shop locally and support small businesses to avoid contributing to market monopolisation.
21. Mechanisms to protect strip shops and small outlets from predatory behaviour by large retailers and shopping centres.
22. Cooperating with the Federal government to restrict the ability of the supermarket duopoly from purchasing further agricultural land and exerting undue influence over the supply chain.
Revised April 2022.