Lyn Allison (Victoria, Australian Democrats) Share this | Hansard source

I move Australian Democrats amendment (1) on sheet 5249 in respect of the Broadcasting Legislation Amendment (Digital Radio) Bill 2007:

(1)    Schedule 1, page 29 (after line 31), after item 52, insert:

52A  After subsection 122(2)

Insert:

     (2A)    A standard under paragraph (2)(a) must include standards for the control of food or beverage advertising, including:

             (a)    that advertisements for food or for a beverage must not be broadcast during a C period; and

             (b)    that no advertisement or sponsorship announcement broadcast during a C period must identify or refer to a company, person or organisation whose principal activity is the manufacture, distribution or sale of food or of a beverage—this requirement is in addition to the requirements of the Commercial Television Industry Code of Practice; and

             (c)    that no advertisement for food or for a beverage may be broadcast during a C program or P program that is broadcast outside a C period or P period, or in a break immediately before or after any C program or P program; and

             (d)    that no advertisement or sponsorship announcement broadcast during a C program or P program that is broadcast outside a C period or P period, or in a break immediately before or after such a C program or P program, must identify or refer to a company, person or organisation whose principal activity is the manufacture, distribution or sale of food or of beverages—this requirement is in addition to the requirements of the Commercial Television Industry Code of Practice.

      (2B)    A standard made in accordance with subsection (2A) may permit the making of community service announcements regarding food and beverages.

Note 1:  For the purposes of subsection 122(2B), an example is where a public health or education organisation makes a community service announcement in relation to food or beverages.

Note 2:  C and P Programs and C and P periods are defined in the Children’s Television Standards (made under subsection 122(1) of the Broadcasting Services Act 1992).

Note 3:  children is defined in the Children’s Television Standards (made under subsection 122(1) of the Broadcasting Services Act 1992).

Note 4:  A code of practice is registered by section 123 of the Broadcasting Services Act 1992.

This bill provides an opportunity to address, through the Broadcasting Services Act, one of the most serious health problems facing the country. Obesity has doubled in Australia over the last 20 years. More than seven million adults are overweight or obese, and our rate of childhood obesity is one of the worst in the world. Recent research published by the Menzies Research Institute showed that overweight children are highly likely to experience the same problem in adulthood, but even children who are a healthy weight are going on to become obese adults.

Cardiovascular disease remains Australia’s biggest killer, with 50,000 deaths a year. That death rate has tapered in the last 20 years because of remarkable advances in surgery and drugs, but we will see increases again as the obese generations grow older. Type 2 diabetes has doubled in Australia over the past 20 years. There are more than one million sufferers, and another one million have a prediabetic condition that will almost certainly develop into full-blown diabetes.

The death, injury and financial burden of these conditions is overwhelming. Obesity alone has been estimated by Access Economics to cost the country $21 billion a year in health costs and in lost productivity, amongst other things. If this epidemic spread of obesity and related disease continues, life expectancy in this country will actually start to drop. We recognise that there is no magic fix to these problems, but there are some solutions. Unfortunately the government’s response has been very slow and uncoordinated, and it has failed to tackle some pretty obvious responses to improving diet and lifestyle.

Marketing of food to children is one of the most glaring examples of this government’s failure to respond. TV advertising is the most effective method for reaching young children, and it does reach young children right across the country at an earlier age than any other form of advertising. As we all know, it works and it works extremely well. Advertising for food that is high in fat, salt and sugar accounts for almost all of the food advertising on television.

The World Health Organisation has judged that TV food-advertising to children is a probable cause of childhood obesity. It is not the only cause, but the evidence is that it has an undesirable effect on children’s diets. Just this week we saw accounts of sweet and acidic beverages identified as responsible for tooth decay. Indeed, I think the Prime Minister suggested that fluoride should be introduced into drinks in cans and bottles, particularly water and substances like Gatorade.

I think children need to receive very strong messages about the importance of healthy diets and physical activity. The government has put money—many would argue nowhere near enough—into physical activity measures, but it is still ignoring the other side of the equation, and that is healthy eating habits. We need restrictions on advertising of unhealthy foods, and that includes bans on advertisements for food during children’s TV viewing times at a minimum.

Our amendment does not try to define junk food. That would make it altogether too easy for action to be delayed while debates rage about what is and what is not okay to be advertised and too easy for the marketing companies to come up with ways to get around such restrictions. McDonald’s use of the Heart Foundation’s tick system shows just how such things can be manipulated. That is why we are suggesting a system that stops all advertising of food unless it is a community service announcement.

We already protect children from the advertising of alcohol and tobacco and high levels of violence during TV programs. The Democrats say that we should be doing the same with unhealthy food. It is true that individuals have to make the changes—governments cannot make them for them. But governments do have a responsibility to make it as easy as possible for people, particularly parents, to make healthy choices and change their habits.

Australia has led the world in tackling other public health epidemics. Our action on smoking has been second to none, meaning that we now have one of the lowest rates in the world. Our response was very good on HIV-AIDS too, and the same is true of that disease. We could do the same for obesity. What we need, though, is political leadership and the courage to do it. Madam Acting Chair, I suggest to you and other members of the Senate that our amendment would go a very long way towards solving this problem and it ought to be supported.