Strawberry crisis: Scott Morrison unveils harsh new jail penalties for food saboteurs

Scott Morrison has unveiled harsh new penalties for people who tamper with food, a regime he wants Parliament to pass by tomorrow night.

PM Scott Morrison with Attorney-General Christian Porter announcing new penalities for food tampering at Parliament House in Canberra. Picture: Kym Smith

People who tamper with food could spend up to 15 years behind bars under new legislation proposed by Scott Morrison, who labelled people who stick pins in strawberries as “cowards” and “grubs”.

The Prime Minister has also created a new offence of “recklessness” which will cover people who engage in hoaxes or contaminate food without the intent of hurting someone.

The legislation will be introduced into federal parliament tomorrow.

“Any idiot who thinks they can go out into a shopping centre and start sticking pins in fruit and thinks this is some sort of laugh or put something on Facebook that is a hoax, that sort of behaviour is reckless and, under the provision that we will be seeking to introduce swiftly, that type of behaviour would carry a penalty of up to 10 years in prison,” Mr Morrison said.

.@PeterDutton_MP on the strawberry crisis: There are now over 100 cases of a report of fruit being contaminated. We believe a lot of these will be hoaxes, it is a diversion of resource when we want to be finding true culprits.

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— Sky News Australia (@SkyNewsAust) September 19, 2018

“It is not a joke, it is not funny. You are putting the livelihoods of hard-working Australians at risk. And you are scaring children and you are a coward and you are a grub.

“And if you do that sort of thing in this country we will come after you and we will throw the book at you.”

.@ScottMorrisonMP on strawberry tampering crisis: We will create a new offence that deals with the issue of recklessness.

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— Sky News Australia (@SkyNewsAust) September 19, 2018

Mr Morrison said the 15 year jail terms for people who contaminate food with the intent of causing injury is in line with penalties for financing terrorism and possessing child pornography.

“That’s how seriously our government takes it,” he said.

Mr Morrison, who wants the laws to pass parliament by the time it rises on Thursday evening, said the incidences of strawberry tampering were “distressing” and were threatening the livelihoods of farmers, particularly in Queensland.

“Some idiot, for his own reasons, or her own reasons, has engaged in an act of sabotage, it would seem, that has put all of that at risk for these people just out there having a go,” he said.

.@cporterwa on strawberry tampering crisis: Proposing ways to strengthen or improve the criminal law should not be taken to mean that there are not already very significant criminal offences on the Commonwealth and state books.

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— Sky News Australia (@SkyNewsAust) September 19, 2018

“And not only that, mums and dads and their kids have been put in the position of having a real concerns and, indeed, fears. It’s not on. We can’t put up with it. “

Mr Morrison encouraged people to continue buying strawberries but to take precautions, such as chopping them before eating.

He said police were working to catch the perpetrators.