Michelle Ananda-Rajah (Higgins, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Braddon for bringing forth this very important motion. When it comes to overweight and obesity, Australia unfortunately punches well above its weight. Australia is a wealthy country, and in the club of OECD countries, a number of 32 countries that are mostly wealthy, Australia ranks fifth in countries with problems ranging from obesity to overweight. One-third of Australian adults are living with obesity. That's about 14 million Australians, and it includes two-out-of-every-three adults as well as one-in-four children.

To be clear so that we all understand what we're talking about here, overweight relates to a BMI of 25 or above, and obese relates to a BMI of 30 and above. However, in my practice, I have looked after patients who are in the super-obese range. The highest weight patient I ever looked after had a weight of 180 kilos. This unfortunate gentleman had to be broken out of his house in order to be brought to hospital. He remained in hospital for several months, where I looked after him for a period of three months. He was there for us to try and initiate bariatric surgery—this is stomach stapling essentially. It was a really difficult process, managing him and managing all his chronic health problems. Unfortunately, despite us getting agreement from the surgeons, which was a long and arduous affair of negotiation and investigations, when he was finally taken to theatre, they opened him up only to then close him. Why? Because they found that he had already developed cirrhosis of his liver. This occurs because of fatty infiltration of the liver. When that happens, it is a dealbreaker. No surgeon will operate any further, because essentially the patient is now on a fairly terminal trajectory. These are some of the hidden impacts of obesity, and I would actually say that there are many, many Australians walking around who probably have early features of fatty infiltration of their liver, and, if that's the case, they really should go and see their doctor and seek some advice on what to do next.

Australians do want an environment that makes it easier to lead healthier lives. I live in one of those environments, where I see people walking, walking their dogs or running and jogging. They have access to healthy food, particularly fresh food. They also have access to unhealthy food, but the healthy food is abundant and it is easy to get. And it's predominantly an educated electorate—60 per cent of my constituents have a degree or a diploma. And people have access to public transport. So they're enabled to make active, healthy choices. In addition, it's a safe community. It is actually safe to walk down the street—it is safe to go jogging, either in the morning or in the evenings or indeed at night-time—and people somehow make time to factor exercise into their day, even though they are busy.

This is not the case with Australians all around this country. Many Australians live in communities which, frankly, are unsafe, and many Australians are struggling to get by and they simply do not have the time. It seems a luxury to look after themselves—particularly women, particularly mothers.

In addition, we take for granted some of the basics. Most of the communities we live in have access to clean water. There are, in fact, around 250,000 Australians, mostly First Nations communities, who do not even have access to clean water. This is why we are contributing $150 million to First Nations water security. It is unclear to me as to why, in 2023, we have this situation, but what it is doing is accelerating diabetes in those communities. Why? Because they're resorting to soft drink and sugary drinks rather than to clean water.

I'm currently sitting on a health committee which is looking at diabetes and obesity in this country, and we are finding out that First Nations communities, including children as young as three, are developing type 2 diabetes despite having a normal BMI. This is clearly unacceptable.

What we need is a whole-of-nation approach to solving this problem, and that includes leadership from our end—from every person in this parliament—and the use of evidence and data and investing in implementation so that we actually help Australians make better choices.

We obviously also need to destigmatise being obese and overweight, because it only feeds into the problem. It makes it harder to actually shed those extra kilos.

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