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

I rise to speak about the millennium disease, the obesity epidemic, and what is being done to address the epidemic. I rise to inform the Senate of my seventh healthy lifestyle forum, which was held at Parliament House on Wednesday, 18 October. It was attended by 150 invited participants and featured 16 speakers from around Australia and overseas. The forum was opened by the Minister for Health and Ageing, Tony Abbott, and was attended by Minister for Education, Science and Training, Julie Bishop, who also addressed the forum.

Participants were invited on the basis that they were seriously interested in being part of the solution to childhood obesity and did not want in any way to be part of the problem. Diabetes Australia commissioned a report by Access Economics on the cost of obesity, which was released at the forum with considerable media interest from around Australia.

This report is a time bomb because it does not deal with the traditional and typical broadbrush statistics of people who are overweight and those who are obese; rather, it deals only with those who are obese. The report warned that, if our current lifestyle remained unchecked, there would be 7.2 million obese Australians by the year 2025, or a staggering 29 per cent of the population.

The Access Economics report underlined the seriousness of this issue. If we take no action we face a health crisis like a tsunami—such that we have never seen before. The report said that obesity is already costing Australians $3.767 billion in direct costs each year or $21 billion a year after Access Economics included factors such as loss of wellbeing through premature death and disability.

In 2005, 3.24 million Australians were estimated to be obese—1.52 million males, or 15.1 per cent of all males, and 1.72 million females, or 16.8 per cent of all females. Obesity was defined in terms of body mass index—over 30 for adults and, for children aged 2 to 8 years, as a set of age-gender specific BMI thresholds. Obesity is linked to genetic, perinatal, socioeconomic and other factors, but is primarily due to energy imbalance—energy in and energy out and the imbalance between the two. BMI is defined as body weight in kilograms divided by height in metres squared. The 55 to 59 year age group contained the largest number of obese people for both men, 159,000, and women, 203,000. Over 280,000 young Australians aged between five and 19 years are obese.

The report considered a number of scenarios in measuring the worsening trend of obesity. It said that, despite serious weaknesses in data, obesity prevalence rates appeared to be increasing for both adults and children, although it is unclear at exactly what rate. A baseline prevalence projection, with no further change in age-gender prevalence rates, such that all further increases are due to demographic ageing alone, indicated that by 2025 a total of 4.2 million Australians, or 16.7 per cent of the population, are forecast to be obese. However, if rates continued to increase at historical rates there could be as many as 7.2 million obese Australians by 2025, or 28.9 per cent of the population.

Obesity led to the following serious ailments: 102,204 Australians had type 2 diabetes as a result of being obese, 10.8 per cent of all type 2 diabetics; over 379,000 Australians had cardiovascular disease as a result of being obese, obesity causing 14 per cent of hypertension, 12 per cent of cardiovascular disease and 12 per cent of stroke; over 225,000 Australians had osteoarthritis as a result of being obese, or 14 per cent of all people with osteoarthritis; and 20,430 Australians had cancer as a result of being obese, obesity causing 13 per cent of colorectal and kidney cancers, and 16 per cent of breast and uterine cancers.

The total financial cost of obesity, as I indicated, was estimated as $3.767 billion. Of this, productivity costs were estimated as $1.7 billion, health system costs were $873 million and carer costs were $804 million. The net cost of lost wellbeing—the dollar value of the burden of disease, netting out financial costs borne by individuals—was valued at a further $17.2 billion, bringing the total cost of obesity in 2005 to $21.0 billion, according to Access Economics.

Of the financial costs, 29 per cent are borne by individuals, 16.4 per cent by family and friends, 37 per cent by federal Australian government and five per cent by state governments, 0.1 per cent by employers and 12.4 per cent by the rest of society. However, if the cost of lost wellbeing is included, the individual’s share rises markedly to 87.3 per cent of the total.

Also at the forum, the Australian Association of National Advertisers released its new national advertising code based on new international guidelines. The AANA was the first organisation in the world to respond publicly to the new guidelines. I thank the AANA, especially Chairman Ian Alwill and Executive Director Collin Segelov for their input over the years to my forums. I have worked closely with them since 2002, developing the Jo Lively advertising campaign promoting healthy lifestyles among children and produced at a cost to advertisers of some $10 millions a year in a benefit to the local community.

This was an enormously successful forum in Canberra with much public interest and some highly professional contributions from the experts. Of course I would like to thank many of the people who contributed to its success, especially the Hon. Tony Abbott; Professor Louise Baur from the University of Sydney; Associate Professor Michael Booth from the University of Sydney; Lynne Pezzullo from Access Economics; Professor Stig Pramming, who is based in London at the Oxford Health Alliance and who flew all the way from the UK; Mr Philip Vita from New South Wales Health; the Hon. Julie Bishop, Minister for Education, Science and Training; Ms Lynette Brown from Nutrition Australia; Dr Alastair Robertson from CSIRO Agribusiness; Dr Michael Brydon from Sydney Children’s Hospital; Mr Dick Wells from the Australian Food and Grocery Council; Mr Peter Kell from Choice; as I have mentioned, Collin Segelov from AANA; Megan Cobcroft from Unilever; Mr Mark Peters from the Australian Sports Commission; Associate Professor Leonie Segal from Monash University; Dr Carolyn Whitzman from the University of Melbourne; and Professor Boyd Swinburn from Deakin University, who is also President of the Australasian Society for the Study of Obesity. Also I have a special thank you to: Professor Ian Caterson for deputising as chair for me at the forum; and members of the program committee and supporters Associate Professor Ruth Colaguiri, Professor Stephen Leeder and Professor Jennie Brand Miller, along with the 130 participants including representatives from Kraft, Masterfoods, Coca Cola, McDonalds, Sanitarium and Woolworths, who all want to be part of the solution.

Special acknowledgements also to: Red Hill Primary School for their wonderful demonstration of the Australian government’s Active After-school Communities program; Tasmanian Independent Retailers for the fantastic Tasmanian apples; Mr Philip Steel, Deputy Principal of Karabar High School; and Karabar High School students Tim Crawley, Ketura Budd, Lara Bowyer and Sam Parsons, who also brought a fresh perspective to the issue of childhood obesity. A special thank you to David Albachten and Clive Benne from Novo Nordisk Pharmaceuticals for being the principal sponsor of the forum. Novo Nordisk have demonstrated at all times good intentions in seeking new health solutions through community and government partnerships. And a special thankyou to Janelle Frewin in my office for her support and efforts in making the forum happen. She has made a sterling effort.

Since entering the Senate in 2002 I have convened seven healthy lifestyle forums to help combat childhood obesity. Each forum has brought together experts in their field. I am editing my third book on the many speaker contributions to these forums and it is planned for this book to be launched before the end of this year. Tragically, 8,000 deaths in Australia annually are related to weight problems. A report in March 2005 said this could be as high as 12,000. There are many things that we should be doing and can be doing to address this epidemic. There are a number of things that I want to place on record. I wish to work with the many industry and community groups to address the epidemic, and plan to continue these efforts. (Time expired)