James Bidgood (Dawson, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak concerning the report that we have before us, which is Weighing it up: obesity in Australia. The committee has weighed it up, and the facts are that we are one of the most obese nations in the world. It is like the antismoking advert. We all know what we have to do. We all know that we need to exercise, to eat properly and to drink responsibly. We cannot afford to avoid the situation of obesity in our society. We have to address the situation as we have it now. We have overweight people in our nation far and above any other developed nation in the world, so we need to address that. The most important recommendation in this report, from my perspective, is recommendation No. 7, which says:

The Committee recommends that the Minister for Health and Ageing place obesity on the Medicare Benefits Schedule as a chronic disease requiring an individual management plan.

I personally argued very strong and hard that this be placed as a recommendation. Having run medical centres for nine years, looking after 10 GPs, 20 staff and the healthcare needs of 40,000 patients in the Mackay region, I have seen the success of management plans concerning asthma, diabetes, mental health and the aged, and this is what we need.

If we are serious as a government and a nation, from a bipartisan point of view, if we really care about our people and we really want to do something constructive, this recommendation is an absolute necessity. It will give GPs, who are mainly the first port of call for people in our community, the access not just to a weigh up to see how overweight you are but to a holistic plan, including the psychology of how you are motivated to do what you need to do. A lot of people lack motivation and self-esteem, and it becomes a vicious circle. Psychology is very important in breaking that vicious circle. We need to get people from the point of hopelessness, where they just feel they cannot do anything anymore about their situation, to a point where they believe: ‘Yes, I can change. Yes, I can do it.’ That motivation is very important.

In a multidisciplinary plan, such as a Medicare obesity plan, we can have psychology and we can have dietitians advising the best types of food and not to go on radical crash diets. As you know, we go into those diets with New Year’s resolutions and by February it is all over. We need realistic, sustainable dietary plans. This needs to be backed up by realistic physical exercise regimes. The fact of the matter is we are a very sedentary nation. We drive everywhere, we do not walk as much as we used to and we spend a lot of time in front of televisions and computers.

The basic bottom line here is: we need to get moving. The most realistic and easy way to get someone moving is to say, ‘Go for a walk.’ People who are obese are often very self-conscious about their size and have poor self-image. We need to encourage people to do basic things every day which are achievable, such as get up early in the morning, walk 15 minutes in one direction, stop, turn around and walk back home. That is very achievable. But for a lot of people who are acutely obese that is a very difficult thing to do and it is a big strain on their heart. Simple things like that need to be done.

We need to take a holistic approach. We need to take an approach towards psychology, nutrition and exercise and we need to look at the environment in which people live, work and operate. These are very important keys to the holistic management of the problem of obesity in our society. A lot of where we are right now as a nation is due to our wealth and our success as an advanced economy. We have luxuries such as cars, televisions and computers which take up our time and reduce our physical activity. The human being is designed to be functional, moving and engaged in society. Obesity can cause a feeling of dislocation from society. It can cause loneliness and family break-up. These have far wider implications in our society.

Recommendation 7 is, in my opinion, the most important recommendation, which I would like to see adopted by the Minister for Health and Ageing. We need change to address the problem now, and this addresses it. We need the political will. We need the determination to take on this goal to reduce the amount of obesity in our nation. We need to have a clear vision. Part of that is addressed by the economic facts and figures that we have before us in this report. I would like to draw your attention to the National Health Survey, which reported just recently. In 2007-08, 68 per cent of men were overweight or obese compared to 10 years ago, when it was just 64 per cent. In 2007-08, 55 per cent of women were overweight or obese compared to 10 years ago, when it was 49 per cent. We need to move towards addressing these problems.

Access Economics have worked some figures out on lost productivity and cost to society as a whole in dollar values. In 2008 they estimated the cost to the Australian economy was $49.9 billion. That is a very big figure caused by the very big problem of obesity in our nation. From a purely economic point of view, this needs to be addressed. There has been an increase over the years in discrimination and stigma and, as I said, the social isolation of people who are obese. They have lower levels of occupational prestige and lower levels of income. There is more sickness and there are more unemployment benefits being paid. There is a lower workforce participation rate and much higher absenteeism. This is having a very direct effect on the productivity of our nation. Just the productivity in the workplace is estimated to be worth $3.6 billion. Productivity is, in the long term, the key to building a more internationally competitive economy. So obesity has far more wide-ranging ramifications in our society than just the personal and local. It affects the whole community, the whole nation and our exports as well.

The reason I am so passionate about this subject is that it is at the very core of our existence and our being to have people who are functional in our society—people who are holistic and happy in mind, body and soul. That is why, as part of the Rudd Labor government, I am so passionate about sports in our society. That is why I have been so passionately fighting for my community to have excellent sporting facilities, such as the Mackay rugby league stadium, for which I managed to get $8.8 million of funding, and, for Mackay cricket, the Harrup Park Country Club, which will have facilities of international standard worth $1.3 million. I am also proud to say that I managed to get funding of $114,000 for the Dolphins Soccer Club in Northern Beaches, Mackay.

It is important to have our people engaged at a young level. Our children are our future. It is a cliche, but it is true. We need to set a child in the direction of the way and the manner that the rest of their lives will be. I personally have a very strong issue about having no salt in our diet. At the age of 50 I can honestly say I am glad I made a decision 20 years ago to cut salt completely out of my diet, along with sugar, and to reduce my intake of fat and other not-so-healthy foods. I can say honestly that my heart rate is way better than, perhaps, is normal for my age, even after doing a massive workload and carrying on in the stress of the job that I do and also in the physical activities that I do. We need to set examples as politicians. We need to get down to the gym. We need to walk in our communities. If we do not do that then who are we to say to others, ‘This is what you should do. This is the way to live a healthier life’? We need to get children into the routine of exercise through sport. We need to get them out walking as a family. Whether you are a single parent or in a couple, you need to go walking with your kids. It is a time to communicate and it is a time to exercise. As I said at the beginning of this talk, it is achievable, it is realistic, it is not hard. We need to get our nation moving.

I commend this report because it really does address important issues in our society. This is an excellent report and I wholeheartedly endorse it. Of all the things I have done in this parliament, being involved in this report is the most satisfying thing I have done to date. I wholeheartedly commend it to the Minister for Health and Ageing and also to the Main Committee.

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