Page 3833 - Week 13 - Wednesday, 16 October 1991
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WORLD FOOD DAY
Ministerial Statement
MR BERRY (Minister for Health and Minister for Sport): I seek leave to make a ministerial statement in relation to World Food Day.
MR SPEAKER: Is leave granted?
There being no objection, leave is granted.
Mr Humphries: Reluctantly.
MR BERRY: All you had to do was say five minutes ago - - -
MR SPEAKER: Mr Berry, please proceed.
MR BERRY: All you had to do was say no.
Mr Humphries: I am not going to be so ungracious as you were.
Mr Stefaniak: We are not so churlish as that, Wayne.
Mr Humphries: We have standards.
MR BERRY: Mr Speaker, the Liberal Party members opposite tell me that they have standards, but there are a number of different standards now - - -
MR SPEAKER: Order! Let us proceed to the statement.
MR BERRY: Mr Speaker, it is my pleasure to draw to members' attention the significance of World Food Day. In our deliberations today we should be cognisant of what we, as individuals and as a nation, can do to alleviate the plight of those afflicted by hunger and poverty in many parts of the world. World Food Day, which is held each year on 16 October, was started as an initiative of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation, the FAO - I know that Mr Stevenson would be a supporter of that organisation - and also marks its anniversary date.
The day serves as an annual reminder of the scope and toll of widespread hunger and its principal cause, poverty. One hundred and fifty member countries of FAO, including Australia, observe the day with grassroots activities at a national level. This year the theme for World Food Day is "Trees for Life". It highlights the part that trees play as a source of life, which is essential to the sustainable production of food for all, both now and for generations yet unborn, and to increase awareness of the dangers in the unlimited exploitation and depletion of the natural riches of the world's forests.
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