Page 1565 - Week 04 - Thursday, 7 April 2011
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I think we need to seriously look at the 2 and 5 campaign and campaigns like that, which are very worthy and good and you get a nice recipe book. People understand they need to eat two and five, but it is not actually translating into particular populations changing the way they eat and the way they exercise. That is the area I would like to see addressed first. But there will be more money going into this area. I am not sure it will be enough to satisfy you, or indeed satisfy me, but there will be more money going into this area. Over time I think you will see increasingly the shift away from acute into subacute and also into our health promotion and prevention activity.
MS HUNTER: A supplementary?
MR SPEAKER: Yes, Ms Hunter.
MS HUNTER: Minister, what socioeconomic groups are most likely to face high rates of obesity and chronic disease and how are you working to focus on them?
MS GALLAGHER: I have tried, in a sense, to answer that. I think in the ACT the areas where I would be most concerned are the low socioeconomic groups particularly and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health. I think they are the two areas. That is the question to me.
When you run around the lake or at lunch time you see a lot of fit Canberrans out exercising. Indeed, if you go around in the morning, when Mr Speaker is racing around there, again you see a lot of fit, healthy Canberrans. You do not see the people that perhaps we need to be targeting the message to the most. And that is the issue I think that we need to have a pretty hard conversation about, whether we now shift away from a general sort of spraying of the population with the same message or whether we look at what resources we have available, pull them all together and actually make sure that those funds are going into the areas and into the population groups where we need to see substantial change.
In Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health, we are not seeing the reductions in tobacco consumption that we are seeing in other areas of the population. Young Aboriginal pregnant women are still taking smoking up at a much higher rate than non-Aboriginal pregnant women. So we need to, I think, for the next steps in tobacco control, look at how we are getting the messages to that population. That is work that is currently underway. There are no easy answers, though, unfortunately.
MS LE COUTEUR: A supplementary, Mr Speaker?
MR SPEAKER: Yes, Ms Le Couteur.
MS LE COUTEUR: Minister, has the ACT government adopted the World Health Organisation’s social determinants of health framework, as has been recommended?
MS GALLAGHER: I am not sure if they have been adopted. I am certainly aware of them and they are used in our policy development, but I will check whether we need
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