Launch of the Food Industry’s Pantry List
Mitchell Library (State Library of NSW)
Macquarie Street, Sydney
Thursday 28 February, 11.15am
CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY
Acknowledgements
- First, may I acknowledge the traditional owners of the land we meet on – and pay my respects to their elders, both past and present.
Other Acknowledgements
- Chair – Dick Wells, Chief Executive of the Australian Food and Grocery Council
- Dale Cleaver, Acting CEO Australian Red Cross Society (also speaking)
- Steve Newton, Chair of the Retail Action Working Group
- Members of the Food Chain Infrastructure Assurance Advisory Group
Introduction
1. I’d like to start by thanking Dick Wells for inviting me here today, and also acknowledge him as Chair of the Food Chain Infrastructure Assurance Advisory Group and a member of the Critical Infrastructure Advisory Council.
2. The Council provides me with advice on the national approach to protecting critical infrastructure – the food chain, of course, being a key element of that picture.
Avoiding a Shock to the System
3. I’m guessing some of you are old enough to remember the days when all shops were closed over Christmas.
4. No supermarkets or corner stores traded.
And service stations, if they were open, had soft drinks and ice-creams and that was about it.
5. In the days leading up to the shutdown, supermarkets would be filled with shoppers.
And afterwards, the shelves would look like a swarm of locusts had swept through.
6. Even though we knew the shops were only going to be closed for a short time, there was still an element of anxiety – a fear that we may have to go without.
7. And this was the era when many households grew and preserved their own fruit and vegetables, and had a pantry that was pretty well stocked.
There was little danger of anyone going hungry.
8. Nowadays we live in a very different society.
Busier lives, constantly trying to achieve work-life balance.
9. We have more single parent families and more families where both parents work outside the home.
10. This has left many people increasingly time-poor and looking to shop only when they can fit it in.
11. I’d say most of us have become accustomed to ‘just in time’ 24/7 shopping:
- buying dinner on the way home from work, or
- driving down to the local service station late at night for a litre of milk.
12. We also no longer have to organise our shopping around public holidays.
13. Even though the larger supermarkets may still close on Good Friday and Christmas Day, it’s a rarity for all stores to be closed.
14. We have come to expect that food, drink, and other household staples will be available whenever we need them.
15. Of course, the food industry has had to keep up with these changes.
Driven by shifting customer habits, the industry has adjusted the way it stocks and distributes its goods.
16. But there is a downside to this expansion in consumer choice.
17. The market driven reality of this convenience is slender stock holdings and systems that operate at maximum capacity.
In turn, this can mean diminished resilience.
18. Resilience is a word we hear a lot in critical infrastructure protection circles. We all know that the faster the recovery time after a crisis, the less long-term financial and psychological impact there is on society.
19. A major key to resilience is self-sufficiency and the food industry has taken a helpful step in providing guidance to households on how to be self-sufficient in a crisis through the Pantry List.
The Pantry List
20. I’m also very pleased that Emergency Management Australia, a division in my Department, has updated its publication Preparing for the Unexpected.
21. To date, the publication has been very successful, with some 50,000 copies being requested and supplied to the Australian public.
22. I’m pleased to say that it now includes additional advice from the food industry, and gives a link to the Pantry List website for those wanting further information.
23. Although Australia has a first class emergency management system, the simple fact is that any emergency puts strain on the system.
24. The more individuals can do to be prepared, the better the emergency services and emergency management volunteers can direct their resources to where they’re needed most.
25. One thing we know for sure is that a calm response to any emergency achieves the best results.
26. But a calm response does not happen by chance.
It is the result of preparation and planning.
27. The Pantry List and Preparing for the Unexpected help in this regard by informing the community how to take reasonable steps to prepare for emergencies.
Conclusion
28. I’d like to congratulate Dick Wells, and the food industry as a whole, on this initiative.
29. I know the Pantry List is the culmination of a lot of hard work and collaboration between businesses from the industry, in particular the retailers.30. I congratulate you on your efforts.