Guy Barnett (Tasmania, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Indeed, we should be trying, Senator Fierravanti-Wells—each one of us. As members of parliament we are role models whether we like it or not and we should try. That does not mean we are perfect. Nobody is perfect but let us give it a go. As politicians and policymakers we need to do our best to ensure that we address and attack the obesogenic environment in which we live. We live in an obesogenic environment and we need to undertake mechanisms, initiatives and policies which address, attack and change that obesogenic environment into a healthy environment in which young children, young Australian kids, in particular, can prosper and do well. Let us give them the best chance in life.

That is one reason why the first anti-obesity initiative by any Australian government was announced by the Howard government in 2004 in Launceston by the then Prime Minister, John Howard, together with Senator Rod Kemp. This was at my June 2004 Launceston Healthy Lifestyle Forum, where Mr Howard announced four specific anti-obesity initiatives. One of them was having two hours of PE, of compulsory physical education, per week in schools. Up until then people simply did not accept it because it was compulsory—you know, kids should be entitled to do what they want to do. Of course that has all changed; it has been turned on its head.

Another key initiative was the commencement of the Active After-schools Communities program. Senator Pratt referred to it and noted that it was $124 million over four years. That is the correct figure, not $12.4 million over four years. That program was commenced under the Howard government, and it is continuing. But it should be extended to all schools so that all kids can have an opportunity to partake in it, and that is an objective I hope we can move towards. Some 3,000 schools benefit at the moment but we can do much better. And again that is about creating good habits for children. That initiative also included providing more healthy tuckshops and more healthy eating opportunities and healthy options for kids in schools. The fourth part of that anti-obesity initiative package was an education and information campaign including Joe Lively. I know that the Joe Lively campaign at least was supported by the AANA, the Australian Association of National Advertisers, and I commend them for their advocacy, for their leadership, particularly at the time, to try to make a difference. So in terms of the background, yes, it is a very serious issue and we need to address it.

What have the Labor government done to address this issue? Let us just have a think about it. They announced during the election campaign that obesity would be a national health priority, and I congratulate them for that. They subsequently announced that it would be, and that commitment was made by Nicola Roxon on behalf of the government. But what has happened since? The government have been there now for well over 15 months and in terms of initiatives and on-the-ground action to address the obesity epidemic, results have been very, very slim indeed. It is true that we have a National Preventive Health Task Force, but how long do we have to wait before we get action on the ground in terms of initiatives to combat the obesity epidemic? I call the government to account. I say: please stand up and act. There are things that you can do now, this week, and today, to make a difference. The government should be making a difference.

Professor Rob Moodie, who is the head of the National Preventive Health Task Force, is a very credible and great guy doing a professional job with the support of Professor Paul Zimmet and his other colleagues on that task force. I look forward to the report when it is due—and I understand that that is around mid-year—but we simply cannot wait for further reports. It is now a national health priority, but what does that mean? The government must come clean and address that particular matter.

Some of the initiatives that the government could undertake are referred to in my book, which was launched by Tony Abbott in December 2006, titled the Millennium disease: responses to Australia’s obesity epidemic and edited by me. It has insights from experts and a selection of presentations from the healthy lifestyle forums to help combat childhood obesity, which I have hosted since 2002. So there are some great minds and some great policies and some great initiatives in there.

In fact, it includes a 10-point plan at the back of the book which includes classifying obesity as a national health priority, and you can tick it—it has been done—but now you need action. There are things like: applying a Medicare rebate for obesity consultations; establishing a healthy lifestyle commission reporting to the Office of the Prime Minister and Cabinet; extending the Active After-school Communities program to reach all school-age children; extending the Healthy School Community program and making that an annual funding arrangement. These are definitely initiatives that should be seriously considered. In addition, allow only healthy food to be sold in school canteens and provided at childcare centres, including a ban on sugary fizzy drinks. They should not be there. They should not be in the tuckshops. Kids should only have healthy options at the school kiosk or school tuckshop, not unhealthy options.

We should be benchmarking children’s health and fitness annually just like we benchmark their literacy and numeracy with the benchmarking tests we do. And in terms of targets, why don’t we adopt 2010, or a target in the near future, when we can say, yes, let us target halting the rise in obesity by that time and adopt, say, 2015 as the target for halving obesity in kids? We should be framing new food-labelling regulations to outlaw claims such as ‘98 per cent fat free’ and help consumers tell at a glance which products are healthy and which are not. We do not want misleading information and misrepresentation in advertising in this country. We should increase funding and support for participation in local sport and recreational activities. So there are 10 points, but there are many other initiatives which I would encourage the government and, indeed, all of us to seriously consider.

In terms of the advertising issue itself, again I want to acknowledge the work of the AANA for what they have done and I refer to the submission or report done by Frontier Economics, the Impacts of advertising bans on obesity in Australia. It was released in December 2008. It is an interesting report. It highlights a range of issues and in particular the fact that the advertising, marketing and media industry contributes a $30 billion annual stimulus to the Australian economy and it is not taxpayer funded. It also notes the Rudd Labor government’s guidelines for regulation. In chapter 3 of that report it notes the impact of a particular ban on the advertising of food and beverage. It talks about the principles for regulatory design, the effectiveness of it, and highlights a number of other issues including a cost-benefit analysis of implementing a ban. Of course there is no silver bullet, but that is not an excuse for doing nothing. That is why I call on the Labor government to act on the issue of obesity and bring it to the fore.

We are concerned about any unintended consequences that may flow from Senator Brown’s bill. Initially the bill was designed to ban all food and beverage advertising during the said time. Of course, that would include advertising fresh and healthy food and fresh and healthy drinks, like Tasmanian apples, Tasmanian apricots—Queensland bananas, Senator Birmingham—Tasmanian apple juice and fresh strawberries. All of those beautiful products, which should be promoted and highlighted for kids, could potentially be affected by unintended consequences. I note that, more recently, there has been an amendment to the bill which highlights that there can be an exemption provided by the minister to allow for advertising of healthy food and beverages. Indeed, I note that even today there are further amendments to the bill. I have not considered those amendments that have just been tabled today, but I do say that in its current form I cannot support this bill. But I do support the objective of addressing the obesity epidemic and I commend all senators for that.

I also want to thank and acknowledge the advocacy of Professor Paul Zimmet for his work in addressing the obesity epidemic. I thank Professor Jennie Brand-Miller and the wonderful professional group at the University of Sydney for what they do. I acknowledge the Oxford Health Alliance for their advocacy on these matters, in terms of hosting forums and highlighting what needs to be done to fix this problem. I thank Collin Segelov, who recently retired as Executive Director of the Australian Association of National Advertisers, for his work—and, in fact, for his friendship, which started in November 2002 at the Launceston Healthy Lifestyle Forum. I congratulate Scott McClellan on his recent appointment to the AANA and I wish him well. I noticed that the conclusion of the majority report of the committee referred to by other senators in this place did note that there is no causal link between the advertising and the intake of food and beverage in terms of obesity and outcomes. That report is worth reading. I thank the Senate committee for their work and for what they have done.

In short, we need to do everything within our power to change the obesogenic environment in which we live, so that men and women and boys and girls can live more healthy, active lifestyles. There are many ways to do this. I call on the government to act, to implement initiatives—take the ‘decisive action’ they so often refer to—to make sure that obesity is a national health priority and address that problem. In conclusion, I want to say—perhaps going back to where I started—that we have 3,000 kids dying every day in the world, and here in Australia we are one of the fattest nations on earth. We can do something about this issue. We can make a difference. And I commend those objectives to the Senate.