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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2002 Week 11 Hansard (25 September) . . Page.. 3251 ..

MR CORBELL (continuing):

government decided not to proceed with the 2001 tender for a health and fitness assessment program in primary schools and tenderers were advised of this decision. The reason this was done was that the Standing Committee on Health was conducting an inquiry, including extensive community consultation, into health issues of school-age children.

One of the issues the Assembly committee is inquiring into is the adequacy or otherwise of health and fitness programs in ACT government schools. I felt that it would be pre-emptive for this government to embark upon a particular course of action and commit taxpayers' funds to a specific project which may or may not be at odds with the recommendations of the Assembly inquiry. In the interests of responding seriously to the Assembly's recommendations, through its committee, we chose to defer the decision on a tender for the health and fitness assessment program.

Mr Deputy Speaker, it should be noted, though, that for each public school student in years K to 10 there is currently a mandatory period of time devoted to the areas of health, physical education and sport and recreation. Students from kindergarten to year 2 are required to participate in 20 to 30 minutes of physical activity per day. Students in years 7 to 10 are required to participate in a minimum of 180 minutes per week, of which 150 minutes must be active physical education, including sport.

As well as this, in our public schools teachers conduct a number of other programs. Many schools engage outside agencies to help run specific health, physical education and sports programs. For example, sport development officers from community sporting organisations work in schools to promote their sport and help schools by providing additional physical education opportunities for students.

Schools also participate in annual health and fitness events. For example, the PE and sport unit of the Department of Education, Youth and Family Services coordinates health and PE week every year in conjunction with the Australian Council for Health, Physical Education and Recreation and a number of other agencies. In addition, many schools also visit outside venues, such as the Life Education Centre or the Birrigai outdoor school, to enrich existing school programs in the areas of physical activity, diet and environment.

I would like to emphasise that the problem of childhood obesity is not a matter that can be simply and miraculously fixed by schools. It is a whole-of-society issue. There are no simple answers; it is very complex. Perhaps each of us here should reflect on the amount of time we devote to keeping ourselves healthy and fit before we simply say schools have to fix this problem. We all know it is more complex than that. We all know that the role of parents, the role of advertising, the role of many other factors, has an impact. But that is not to say it is not important for the education system to try to address these issues as much as it can, and I have outlined already a number of the initiatives the government undertakes in this regard.

It is vital, though, that the whole community works together to encourage children to develop the kinds of lifestyle habits that will allow them to become healthy adults. It is vital that we as a community encourage our children to make informed and responsible decisions which will influence their health throughout their lives. There is increasing recognition of the importance of living an active healthy life and of the need to make informed and responsible decisions.

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