 The Federal Health Minister Tony Abbott said that government cannot, and should not control what people eat or how they exercise; ‘All government can do is to support, encourage and facilitate, and that's certainly what the Federal Government is doing.’ Mr Abbott appeared to place the responsibility in the hands of the advertisers, and the Federal Government’s communications portfolio.
Hospitals around Australia are reporting increasing numbers of obesity-related cases filling up their wards, and a major concern has been the prevalence of junk food advertising during children’s television programming. Childhood obesity is a huge problem in Australia, and one which the government appears on the one hand, to want to tackle, but on the other hand, to not want to interfere with, especially if it concerns big business. Mr Abbott did mention feeling encouraged by proposals by the food industry to make nutritional content and health dangers more clearly visible on food packaging, but until this becomes a reality it is hard to predict whether such a move would have any effect.
The minister concluded; ‘It's important for the government to give people the right messages and the right example, but we shouldn't pretend that we can make this problem go away by banning something.’
The Prime Minister, himself a regular exerciser and healthy eater, joined in the debate by writing a letter to Peter Beattie which asserted that state health ministers were wasting their time talking about obesity and advertising because advertising regulation is a federal responsibility. This intervention drew an angry response from Queensland Premier Pater Beattie, who accused John Howard of not taking the obesity epidemic seriously. Other state health ministers also appeared taken aback by the Prime Minister’s stance, with New South Wales Health Minister John Hatzistergos saying’ I think it's extraordinary proposition to argue that health ministers shouldn't be discussing issues of obesity.’
Source: ABC Radio, 28 July 2006
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