As Australia reels from a needles-in-strawberries crisis, Victoria's political opposition has proposed a minimum three-year jail sentence for people who tamper with food.
Liberal leader Matthew Guy on Wednesday called for bipartisan support to create a new offence for deliberately contaminating food.
"This is about doing something right now," he told reporters.
"These sick individuals who would do something like this need to have a serious penalty attached to these actions.
"This is destroying people's livelihoods (and) it is terrifying a lot of people, particularly parents, and it's doing it unnecessarily."
In Canberra, Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced his own crackdown on food contaminators such as the "idiot" who sabotaged strawberries and risked the livelihoods of farmers and put fear in the hearts of parents across the country.
Victorian strawberry season will start soon and stone fruit season in the north of the state will start in November.
Mr Guy said the state Labor government should support changing the Crimes Act by inserting a new offence for food contamination.
"It's very straightforward, can be done very quickly," he told reporters, adding his party would be willing to return to parliament on Friday to change the law.
The Victorian Greens have labelled as lazy the call for mandatory sentencing.
The government has been contacted for comment.
Share
