Concetta Fierravanti-Wells (NSW, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Ageing) Share this | Hansard source

I would like to respond to a couple of points. We are talking potentially of an advisory council with specific functions which are well defined in the legislation. There would be nine or a maximum of 11 people on the advisory council, of which we are advocating some would be from consumer health organisations. This is ultimately about the consumer. If you want to effectively implement preventative health measures, you have to convince consumers because they are ultimately the body of people that are going to purchase, that are going to smoke, that are going to buy, that are going to partake of a particular activity that may or may not be good for them.

With all due respect to Senator Xenophon, I think it is really counterproductive to talk about Dracula in the blood bank. We are talking about one person. I am sure your objections are not to the consumer health organisations, but are mostly to the industry representative. With respect, I would have thought that if you are going to try and get important outcomes in preventative health and if you are going to achieve objectives, surely you will have a much better chance of achieving these objectives if you work with industry and you have a focused and determined approach where industry are involved by having one or two people on the advisory council. We are not talking about the majority of representatives on the advisory council.

I really think this needs to be put into context. I think we are losing the opportunity to encourage industry to work productively and effectively together. We are setting up this body, but you are deliberately excluding what I think is a very important component. Ultimately, it is about industries that manufacture products that we require people to either eat or drink in moderation. I think, in fairness to those industries, having them involved in a more cooperative manner may be a much better way of achieving this objective.