Here's some shocking information I stumbled across in notes from the 21 May 2009 Primary Industries Ministerial Council sitting (that's government ministers sitting down for a meeting). This meeting chose to establish a Working Group to look at the issues of pet food safety. These were the reasons why:
Currently, there is no... legislation that regulates safety of imported pet food (other than the Quarantine Act which looks at quarantine issues - not pet health issues)
the Quarantine Act 1908 does not provide an authority for the Australian Government to mandate tests, treatments or recalls of imported pet food, other than for quarantine issues
Most state and territories do prohibit the processing of pet meat from carcasses sourced from unhealthy animals (the bolding is mine...this means that some states DO accept pet meat from diseased animals)
There is no legislation concerning manufactured pet food in any of the states or territories. (The) new Australian Standard for the Manufacturing and Marketing of Pet Food…is currently voluntary for Pet Food Industry Association of Australia Inc members. Approximately 97-98 per cent of Australian manufacturers of prepared pet food (by volume) are members of PFIAA.
Pet food, including pet meat and pet meat product labelling requirements are regulated in some jurisdictions, but apart from Queensland, there is no provision on requiring manufacturers to state actual ingredients or methods of processing
(Excerpts from 'Enclosure 7 to the PIMC Pet Food Controls Working Group Report')
Unfortunately, full regulation to ensure pet food safety has not been recommended by the Working Group. The Working Group did however agree that the scale of pet safety incidents could have been reduced with better reporting and response arrangements. They also agree that deaths from thiamine deficiency from sulphite treated pet meat would be reduced if there were regulations. So, it seems to me we are still in a risky situation...and I will keep feeding human-grade meat modelled on a Frankenprey diet, with great variety in the amount of commercial canned food I additionally feed.