Page 2600 - Week 09 - Wednesday, 24 August 1994
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MR CORNWELL: I ask a supplementary question, Madam Speaker. Will the Treasurer table the papers from which she quoted and take the balance of the question on notice?
MS FOLLETT: Madam Speaker, I will take on notice the remainder of the question. I can see no advantage to the Assembly in my tabling the paper. I think it sets a precedent. But, if ordered to do so, I will. Do you want me to table my notes? Mrs Carnell has all that information.
MADAM SPEAKER: We seem to have a disagreement about precedent here. I believe that there was a precedent set that we did not table ministerial papers at question time, but you may request it. It is a precedent that I thought people did respect, so I will not pursue that.
Mr Cornwell: Who am I to break a precedent?
Breastfeeding
MR STEVENSON: My question is to Mr Connolly as Health Minister and concerns breastfeeding. In a recent report in the August issue of the Canberra Doctor, the president's report talks about a dramatic potential improvement in health and cost savings that can be brought about by breastfeeding. The doctor says:
... such a public health measure is directly within our grasp. It could have as much public benefit as the elimination of tobacco; it is the encouragement of breast feeding. The best known benefit of breast feeding is that it protects the baby from diarrhoea, and diarrhoea is the major cause of death of babies in the developing countries and to our shame, in aboriginal communities.
He goes on:
It is claimed that more active breast feeding throughout the world could prevent 4000 deaths per day.
The final quote, which relates to cancer, reads:
The benefits to the mother in the first world are a dramatic reduction in the incidence of breast cancer, ovarian cancer and possibly decreased osteoporosis.
I ask: What is the level of breastfeeding in the ACT, and what is being done to increase that level? Also, what are the plans for the future?
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