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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 1 Hansard (15 February) . . Page.. 8 ..

MR WOOD (continuing):

I do not have any idea off the top of my head or any data on what proportion of meals people have in those places, but it is very considerable. I would think most families would have swapped the types of oils they use in their homes for cooking. Let us see that it goes out into the public domain as well. The Minister, Mr Moore, was quite amenable to that suggestion, as he indicated that he will take it up at the national level, where it needs to happen. I do not know whether the ACT could legislate in this area, and I am not suggesting they do, but I think action is needed.

Fast foods are particularly popular with young people. They are the people we ought to be most concerned about. I know for myself that if I could go back to my younger years of 20, 30, 40 years ago and change my diet, I would probably be a healthier person today. My fitness is pretty good, let me tell you. It is not bad.

Let us do something for the coming generations and people of all the ages who eat at fast food outlets, as they do frequently. This is a matter I would like to pay more attention to in the future. I will be very interested in the progress that Michael Moore can report in the future on what is a quite serious health issue.

MR MOORE (Minister for Health and Community Care) (11.04): Mr Speaker, I rise to respond to a number of issues raised by Mr Wood and by the committee. I will deal first with the issue that Mr Wood has just been talking about. It was interesting to me that the issue of animal fat versus vegetable fat came up in the committee hearing, and it is something that we will pursue. It is quite clear to anybody who looks at cholesterol that there is a significant advantage in using vegetable fat in cooking. That is something we will need to follow through on. I can see a whole series of barriers in the way to implementing a policy, but I think the potential health outcomes are quite great. Therefore, it is certainly worth pursuing.

The committee also raised the issue of accurate data on the level of indigenous drug use. It is not just on indigenous drug use but on indigenous health generally that our data has not been good enough. According to information provided to me by the department, the Australian Bureau of Statistics is relooking at how it collects its data and how it can improve it. The department is also assisting by making sure that we have our data right so that we can feed it into the Bureau of Statistics.

The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Forum will be deliberating on the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health strategy. The committee recommends that we do that as a matter of urgency. I consider that an urgent matter. I would hope that we can table the strategy by the middle of this financial year, but it does have to go through the appropriate processes. Ms Tucker raised with me the other day - and I have discussed it briefly with Mr Wood and with Mr Rugendyke - a possible inquiry by the standing committee into Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health just to make sure that we have it right and that we are doing everything we can.

Mr Speaker, just as an aside, recently when I was in Canada I had an interesting discussion with the health authority in Lethbridge, which has responsibility for a quite large Indian reserve in the south of Alberta. It was very interesting to listen to the issues

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