National Food Policy Forum 2025 Report
On 9th December 2025, 75 passionate and experienced leaders from across Lutruwita /Tasmania and interstate met in Launceston for a deep dive into action being taken across Tasmania to tackle food insecurity.
We convened this Forum with our Tasmanian partners both to showcase and celebrate the great work being done on the ground across the state, as well as to inform the Federal government of key needs and priorities to strengthen food security work in Tasmania and nationally.
We are deeply grateful to our main event partners Eat Well Tasmania, Loaves and Fishes Tasmania, Gastronomy Northern Tasmania and St Lukes, as well as to all the presenters from Sprout Tasmania, School Food Matters, Tasmanian University Students Association, the FaRM Project, Dr Katherine Kent and Churchill Fellows Julie Dunbabin and Rodney Spinks who gave so generously of their time, experience and expertise. This team effort made the event the success it was.
Tasmanian Recommendations for the National Food Strategy and Council
Both the speakers and participants generated clear and consistent policy asks to be addressed by the Federal government as it moves forward with the development of Feeding Australia in 2026 and 2027. These can be summarised as follows:
Strategy Scope and Value Commitments
- Recognise the interconnectedness of health, food, and climate
- Embed a clear values statement that recognises the food system is for the people, not for profit
- Shift the focus from economic output of the food system to community wellness and prosperity
Governance
- Revise the National Food Council to reflect the diversity of Tasmania and Australian community food systems – farmers, youth, researchers, civil society, those with lived experience, and educators
- De-silo relevant government departments to take a whole of government, wholistic approach to food and agriculture policy
- Integrate transparency / accountability mechanisms into strategy and general governance structures
- Publish a public record of politicians’ / Ministers’ visitors (i.e. a lobby register)
- Create a legislated responsibility to prioritise recommendations from public consultation processes
- Create a legislated responsibility to act on strategy recommendations developed through public consultation processes
- Increase communication between all levels of government, and ensure the appropriate resourcing of local government to be able to develop and implement locally-grounded food security and food system strategies
- Strengthen competition law / ACCC power to prevent monopolies, duopolies, and oligopolies and associated unjust and unconscionable business practices
- Develop scale appropriate regulation for small-scale farmers/growers
Planning
- Government to step into food deserts, particularly remote communities, and ensure affordable, healthy, and sustainable food retail options
- Provide advice to states and territories on planning legislation that ensures access to local, healthy, and sustainable food
Economics
- Tax corporate food profits at a higher rate
- Create a fund for long term, place-based, flexible funding
- Increase welfare payments to enable all Australians to access healthy, sustainable, local, and culturally appropriate food
Education
- Develop a national food curriculum that can be taught at schools – must be flexible to local context
- Cooking
- Gardening
- Seed collecting
- National role out of universal school meals program – every child, every day, to have a nutritious, and locally procured meal provided
Farming
- Facilitate access to soil health monitoring and education for all farmers
- Develop and implement appropriate standards for farming practices that regenerate farmland
- i.e. CSIRO Landscape Function Analysis
- Support farmers to transition to practices that are profitable while also rebuilding healthy soils and biodiversity
Health
- Recognise the health impacts of ultra processed foods and create dietary guidelines around them
