Page 2138 - Week 07 - Wednesday, 6 August 2014
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here: should this be an ACT-specific study or can we plug into some other research institution and have ACT patients participate in that?
So I will not be supporting the amendment today, but I am sure that it involves issues that we will continue to discuss.
MR GENTLEMAN (Brindabella—Minister for Planning, Minister for Community Services, Minister for Workplace Safety and Industrial Relations, Minister for Children and Young People and Minister for Ageing) (5.18): I thank Dr Bourke for moving this important motion today. I will, firstly, advise that the government will not be supporting Mr Hanson’s amendment. On the first part of Mr Hanson’s amendment—programs that encourage healthy behaviours rather than restrictive interventions—the healthy weight initiative already focuses on encouragement right across the community. As to the longitudinal study on weight loss surgery, it is, in our view, a bit too early to look at a study like that. The weight loss surgery program has only commenced in the public health system this year. But on a good note for Mr Hanson, the healthy weight initiative has a large evaluation component in it, and the obesity management service will also have a reporting requirement.
Each of us knows how far-reaching obesity is as a public health issue. The data is well established and the trends are not improving. From a survey conducted earlier this year on behalf of ACT Health, we know there is widespread awareness of obesity as a challenge for our community. Some 77 per cent view it as an issue for the adult population. We know that up to 95 per cent of people support government intervention to change the food environment and the prevailing cultures which have led us to the current situation. Further, 90 per cent support action to reduce children’s consumption of sugary drinks.
Unfortunately, we face a national political environment in which the appetite for strong action on obesity, which is preventive health more generally, has faded. Most disappointingly, the recent commonwealth budget for 2014-15 announced the end of the national partnership agreement on preventive health and all associated funding from 1 July this year. This came without any prior warning, and the longer term implications of this are still being worked through.
ACT Labor, of course, took the zero growth commitment to the ACT election in 2012. This is where we promised to draw a line under the current rates of obesity and overweight. At face value, zero growth does not seem like an ambitious goal. We have seen recently in the ACT Chief Health Officer’s report that almost two-thirds of ACT adults are overweight while one in four is obese. One in four children are also overweight or obese. We also see in this report some of the root causes. Only 11 per cent of adults eat sufficient vegetables on a daily basis, in children aged two to 15 years, only 37 per cent have enough vegetables in their diet, and 40 per cent of adults are not sufficiently active.
The key policy document which guides actions against our commitment is called “Towards zero growth—healthy weight action plan”. The Chief Minister has taken responsibility for this policy not as health minister but in her role as Chief Minister. Since the policy was launched last October, we have been building an understanding that the priority encompasses all arms of government.
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