Page 1161 - Week 04 - Wednesday, 3 May 2006
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seven sites in the ACT, providing community and hospital-based ambulatory care services and care to inpatients. ACT Health is supporting the Australian government’s get moving campaign, which encourages children and young people to be active for at least one hour a day—something we again are trying to implement in our house. To date, over 20,000 resources have been distributed to a wide range of ACT residents through schools, health clinics, community organisations and workplaces.
ACT Health is also coordinating the national Go for 2&5 fruit and vegetable campaign in the ACT. The campaign includes development and distribution of resources for adults and children, radio and print advertising and food demonstrations. The walking school bus program, supported by government and managed by the YWCA, aims to increase the number of children who walk to school with parent volunteers.
There is an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander nutrition project, family fun at meal times program, with the young mothers group at Gugan Gulwan, and healthy eating guidelines for ACT schools are being developed in a collaborative project between ACT Health and the Department of Education and Training.
However, these government initiatives are only part of the solution. A broad approach is necessary in the effort to reduce the incidence of heart disease in the community. In addition to ongoing campaigns and programs, special events such as Heart Week are an opportunity for groups and workplaces to promote the value of a healthy lifestyle. It is an opportunity to raise awareness in the community and highlight the positive steps that we can all take in our lives to reduce risk factors associated with cardiovascular disease. It can also be a week where we encourage people to at least begin to adopt lasting healthy habits.
Similarly, the ACT division of the Heart Foundation makes a valuable contribution through its programs, which include just walk it, a free walking group program led by volunteers which aims to increase participation in regular physical activity. The Canberra community walks project aims to create a supportive environment to encourage Canberra residents to participate in regular physical activity. The project began in 2001 and has seen the establishment of 12 signposted walks across the ACT.
The ACT Health Promoting Schools canteen project, a fabulous project that Minister Andrew Barr will know about soon, assists all ACT schools in an accreditation and staff training program. The eat smart play smart project aims to improve the nutritional quality of food provided to children and to improve levels of physical activity in out-of-school-hours settings.
From all of this it is clear that there is a great level of activity across government, but also importantly across our community groups. We are taking steps to deal with cardiovascular disease on a number of fronts. Clearly, we cannot afford to become complacent. We must maintain our efforts to promote the importance of good nutrition and regular physical activity as protective factors and as a vital part of a healthy lifestyle. I therefore welcome and strongly support today’s motion from Ms MacDonald to maintain community awareness of this issue.
MR SMYTH (Brindabella—Leader of the Opposition) (5.47): Mr Speaker, it is good that we have this motion because I think it is a timely reminder that the week is an
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