Page 1266 - Week 04 - Wednesday, 3 April 2019
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physical activity guidelines. Additionally, most children exceeded the recommended amount of sedentary, screen-based activity time.
The data on rates of obesity are even more alarming. A recent report which was released just last week by the Collective for Action on Obesity found that over the past 10 years the number of Australians living with obesity has more than doubled, from 2.7 million in 2007-08 to 5.8 million today. Over recent years this trend has been worsening, with 900,000 more Australians living with obesity now than there were just three years ago. If this current rate of growth continues, more than 40 per cent of the Australian adult population will be living with obesity within a decade.
This is a frightening statistic and it is one that does require urgent action. I note Ms Berry’s comments about this being a whole-of-community issue and I think that those figures around adults point to the fact that while the focus of the motion today is on young people—and that does hopefully set a new trend for future generations—we have got a much more significant issue that we need to deal with more broadly.
Research shows that health and mortality risks increase with the number of years someone is living with obesity. Children experiencing obesity are five times more likely to also experience obesity as adults. The consequences of this, of course, are extremely serious. Overweight and obesity in childhood is linked to poor mental health and social outcomes as well as a number of chronic conditions, including type 2 diabetes, asthma, sleep apnoea, bone and stomach problems and liver disease. Many of these are conditions which were previously only seen in older adults.
We all agree this is a serious issue, and the experts are telling us that governments have a key role to play in responding. Obesity and physical inactivity are complex issues that will not be addressed by simply blaming individuals and calling only for greater personal responsibility. We live in environments that provide readily available, high-energy food, low-exercise demands and numerous other features that promote weight gain and discourage active lifestyles.
Certainly the ACT government has recognised the need for leadership on this issue and there have been actions taken. The healthy weight initiative was launched in 2013 and had a broad goal of increasing physical activity and improving nutrition across the ACT, with schools identified as one of the six target areas. A key action for schools as part of this initiative was to improve the measurement, capacity to deliver and curriculum support for physical education in all ACT schools. The initiative notes that just as regular physical activity has direct benefits for the health of children and young people it also has clear links with learning and academic performance. This is consistent with the point made in Ms Lee’s motion about improved NAPLAN scores for students who undertook the recommended amount of physical activity.
Additionally, we know that involvement in sport has many other benefits, teaching important skills such as teamwork and persistence. I think it also does a lot to deliver in terms of self-confidence in particular, and people understand that they can overcome challenges. Perhaps they will not always achieve exactly what they want to achieve but they are learning some of the really important life skills that go with both the highs and lows of sport and physical activity. The benefits are clear and so the
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