Margaret May (McPherson, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Ageing) Share this | Hansard source

I am delighted to speak on Weighing it up: obesity in Australia, a report I commend to the House, in particular the recommendations the committee has made to the parliament. I commend our committee chair, the member for Hindmarsh, who is in the chamber today, for his leadership in this inquiry. It was an important inquiry for everybody in Australia. I also commend our deputy chair, who is also in the chamber today.

We have some alarming statistics in this country on obesity, and I would like to put a few of those on the record today. An ABS survey in 2007-08 found that 68 per cent of adult men and 55 per cent of adult women were overweight or obese. That means that one in two Australian adults are overweight or obese, and up to one in four children are also overweight or obese. We know, and we certainly heard during the committee inquiry, that the prevalence of obesity has doubled over the last 20 years. It is at the stage now where it is a serious health problem in this country, and this report has gone a long way to addressing some of the issues, concerns and things we can do in this country to really tackle the problem of obesity.

Access Economics recently reported the economic costs of obesity in Australia for 2008 to be in the region of $58.2 billion. That is a lot of health dollars going to helping people suffering from obesity. We know obesity is associated with, and increases the risk of, many chronic diseases. For example, being overweight is a risk factor for coronary heart disease and stroke, Australia’s first and second biggest killers. Three other risk factors that we know of—tobacco use, poor diet and lack of physical activity—contribute to the four major chronic diseases: heart disease, type 2 diabetes, lung disease and many cancers, which are responsible for more than 50 per cent of deaths around the world.

With our ageing population, which I have a particular interest in, our healthcare system is going to be increasingly unable to cope with the demands placed on it by people suffering from preventable diseases. The World Health Organisation has identified some shared characteristics of chronic diseases. Chronic disease epidemics take decades to become fully established. They have origins at young ages. Given their long duration, there are many opportunities for prevention. They require a long-term and systemic approach to treatment. Health services must integrate the response to these diseases with the response to acute infectious diseases.

While many factors may influence an individual’s weight, fat is deposited when the energy we consume from food and drink is greater than the energy we expend through physical activity and rest. I think each and every one of us in this parliament knows that is exactly what we are doing to ourselves. We know that what we intake we have to get rid of some way. I think each of us here in the parliament has a responsibility to set a very good example of what we can do as far as setting that example for Australians in how we maintain our healthy lifestyle and our eating habits. It certainly came out through the inquiry that portion size on the plate really does matter. What goes through the lips ends up on our hips. We have all heard that, we all know it and we all grapple with it day after day. It is a huge temptation, and it takes a lot of willpower to ensure that what we put on that plate is of benefit to us.

In this country we also have the opportunity to get out and do some exercise. We know exercise and food intake is part of a healthy lifestyle. Although looking at the weather in Canberra today we probably do not want to be outside, we all know that even 30 minutes of walking makes a big difference to our health lifestyle and how we look after ourselves and our health, particularly as we are getting older. It is a simple matter of exerting more energy than we consume, and that certainly comes through in the report.

One of the report’s recommendations which I was particularly interested in is for better urban design in our cities and suburbs to encourage people to be active. I particularly want to commend the Gold Coast City Council for their Active and Healthy Citywide Program. They provide free and low-cost physical activities right across the city. They are also building bike tracks to encourage people to use their bikes. We have an ageing population on the Gold Coast, a lot of seniors, so there are a lot of walkways being built for them, with safety in mind. I think our senior Australians need to know that they can get out and be part of their communities in safety, and we are certainly encouraging that in our city.

There is also a study currently being undertaken at Bond University by Professor Greg Gass. He came to the committee hearings that were held on the Gold Coast and shared with us the study he was undertaking. It was to do with walking and the effect walking has on type 2 diabetes. In the last couple of weeks I visited the women who are undertaking that program at Bond University. They are halfway through the program, and I hope that seeing the outcomes of that study, when completed, will be of benefit to the parliament and to the health and ageing committee. We also need to encourage our children to get out and be healthy and active. We know young people go to school and have to spend a lot of time in school, but we also know they spend a lot of time playing computer games. I think we need to have programs to encourage kids to get outside.

One of the recommendations we made is about getting community groups and partnerships involved in healthy lifestyle programs. We were all very impressed with a program we saw in Melbourne, the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden program. For all the members who visited that school in Melbourne, it was wonderful to see the kids growing those vegetables, taking care of them, picking them and then ending up with them in the kitchen, where they actually cooked us lunch. It was a fabulous experience and I think every one of the committee members would say that it was a fabulous lunch. We had no meat with that lunch. It was the fruit and vegetables that these kids had grown, and that program is to be commended.

Some schools raised concerns about the difficulty of the criteria and the eligibility for applying for funding for that program throughout Australia. I hope the government will take those concerns on board so that we, as a committee, can see that more and more schools throughout Australia take on that program at school level. We need to teach children the value of eating properly and growing their own vegetables. Even in today’s climate, where families are struggling with the family budget, we saw that you can grow those vegetables on very small plots of land. I think we should continue to encourage kids to do that and set those good examples for their future lifestyles.

I was particularly interested in the inquiry we undertook. Twenty recommendations have come out of the inquiry and I commend everybody who was involved in it, including all the people who gave us evidence through the inquiry. There are a lot of things we, as a country, and the government can look at, such as the food-labelling issue. Most of us cannot read the labels on tinned foods in supermarkets, and I think we need to have a look at how we can do something about labelling in particular. As I said, I commend our chairman, the committee for a wonderful report and the committee secretariat for the support they gave us during the inquiry.

See this speech in context