Cory Bernardi’s inquiry into halal that wasn’t at all just about halal surprisingly came out with mostly recommendations about what to do about halal. The committee’s report released yesterday said food manufacturers should label products that have received “third party certification”, and said the government should monitor halal certification.

Bernardi, fresh from deleting all his tweets after accidentally quoting a neo-Nazi and man convicted of possessing child abuse material as Voltaire, had his own comments for the report, too, complaining about people opposed to buying halal food being labelled as racist or bigoted, and criticising some halal certifiers for not appearing before the committee. Also despite the Australian Crime Commission stating there was no evidence of direct links between halal certification and terrorism funding, Bernardi said it was “logical to conclude that funding from halal certification could be directed to Islamic charities and objectives”, and claimed AUSTRAC had suggested there is a high risk for charities to be used as channels for terrorism funding.

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