Jan McLucas (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Ageing, Disabilities and Carers) Share this | Hansard source

I want to indicate that, whilst Labor have spoken long and loud about the need to respond to the epidemic of obesity—I do not know whether we can say that, but it is getting close—and we need to do something about it, we concur with the parliamentary secretary’s explanation of why this is not the appropriate way to do it. Something has to happen and it has to happen pretty quickly, and part of the solution will be appropriate labelling to inform consumers—whether they are children or the parents who are being badgered by those children to buy a certain product—about what that product contains in an easy-to-read message. There is a lot of potential merit in the traffic light system, but I agree with the parliamentary secretary that this is not the place to enact that policy intent.