Rachel Siewert (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

We gave back all the alcopops. I have a real concern that industry representation on this advisory council—and I am not slagging off industry in general—could undermine the effectiveness of the council. We need very clear advice from this agency. As I articulated in my speech on the second reading of this bill, the agency has a big job. We believe that the marketing of alcohol and junk food is one of the big problems we are facing in promoting healthier lifestyles and acting on preventative health. It is no secret to those in this place that the Greens are very concerned about alcohol advertising and junk food advertising during inappropriate viewing times. Not long ago I heard one of the latest arguments, which says, ‘It is okay to have junk food advertising during children’s viewing hours because we are not actually aiming it at the kids; we are aiming it at the parents.’ We have strong concerns about that.

We believe there is nothing in the bill as it stands to prevent the minister’s appointing someone with industry expertise to the advisory council. Having said that, the minister will be able do that anyway if it is appropriate. But enshrining it in legislation will make the council look like it is promoting the interests of the junk food and alcohol industries and that they have special requirements to be listed above those of other parties.

The alcohol and junk food industries in Australia spend millions of dollars between them promoting their products. They spend far more money than this agency will be able to target at healthier lifestyles and other social marketing programs. The alcohol industry strenuously opposes measures designed to make its products—for example, alcopops—less attractive to young people, and I really do not see how the advisory council and the alcohol industry fit together. The alcohol industry deliberately undermined the impact of the alcopops tax through its big promotion of the drinking of spirits through the giving away of free soft drinks or the sale of two for one soft drinks. All sorts of mechanisms were used to undermine the effectiveness of the alcopops tax. So when the council talks about specific measures, I am not convinced that industry representatives will have at heart the preventative health message, because they will still want to sell their products. As I said previously, it is the marketing of their products that can add to the problems that we are trying to address.

We have indicated our support for consumer representation on the advisory council, and we have accepted the government’s commitment to appoint appropriate consumer representatives. During the debate on the Australian National Preventive Health Agency Bill 2009, which did not go through during the previous parliament, we were strong advocates for consumer representation. But we do not agree with the philosophy of not having a given sector represented just because you do not have another given sector represented. For all those reasons, we do not believe it is appropriate to mandate in the bill industry representation. If it is decided that it is appropriate to have them there, there is nothing in the legislation to say that they cannot be there, but we do not think their representation should be mandated in the legislation, and therefore we do not support these amendments.