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

In supporting Senator Xenophon, first of all I do not think the Parliamentary Secretary for Disabilities and Carers answered my question about the consultancies. I did raise that issue and perhaps I should have framed it in that context. At this point I am not sure if the parliamentary secretary has information available on those. I would really be interested to know the number of consultancies, reports, reviews or research on preventative health which has been commissioned and paid for but which has not been released out in the public arena. I am concerned about the balance and the potential balanced approach of the advisory council and the advice that it would give. From the sound of things and from what the parliamentary secretary has said, I do not think there is going to be too much industry representation on this council, nor do I think that there are going to be consumer health organisations there, given the priority that the government has put on social marketing in this agency. That is the bulk of the cost of the setting up of this agency and it will be social marketing versus other priorities such as research, program delivery and transparency.

I think it is really important that the Australian public is made aware of that advice, how that social marketing is undertaken, how that social marketing is interpreted and how that social marketing could in turn be used to try and change attitudes of the Australian public, given that the parliamentary secretary says that effectively the cost structure of this organisation has been shifted over the forward estimates. If you look at the first explanatory memorandum that breaks down the cost, you can see that the bulk of the spending is going to be on social marketing, it is going to be on obesity and smoking, and they are going to be the priority over the next three years—or certainly that is what it indicated in the explanatory memorandum. I think the public are entitled to know what this agency is doing in its attempts to change in particular obesity, smoking and other things that may also come out in its work in those areas, how those social marketing campaigns are carried out and how those social marketing campaigns will interact with other areas to influence behavioural change.