Mr GARRETT (Kingsford Smith) (4.32 p.m.)—I thank the member for McPherson for moving a motion that is intended to encourage the government to pursue policies which would see a greater emphasis on actions, particularly in education, which would increase the awareness and uptake of preventative health measures. It is a timely and welcome motion, but it is also a rebuke of current government policy and particularly the efforts of the Minister for Health and Ageing, Mr Abbott, who is presiding over an obesity epidemic of young people in this country but seems incapable of overcoming his ideological barriers and doing something effective and real about it.

The urgent need for front-end health prevention can be seen in the rising costs of the health budget and health related technology. No doubt it will become increasingly important for nations to focus on preventative health in the future, especially with the high incidence of preventable diseases, including cardiovascular diseases, high cholesterol, obesity and diabetes.

I note that since 1996 federal government health spending has grown from around 15 per cent to over 20 per cent of the budget, a rise of around 3.8 per cent to 4.4 per cent of GDP. The cost imbalance of treating the endgame of poor health practice rather than investing in preventative health measures is clear. If you look at something like minimally invasive heart surgery, the costs are in the order of $3 million up front and then $2,300 for each procedure for disposable equipment that cannot ever be used again. Surely this is the wrong way to achieve effective and prudent treatment of health issues.

The member for Capricornia pointed out the health measures that are present in the community, such as 10,000 Steps, but the fact is that there has been a huge increase in obesity in Australia—from nine per cent in 1989-90 to 16 per cent in 2001. Alarmingly, the projections for 2010 suggest that at the current rate of obesity there could be 5.6 million Australians overweight—not obese, but overweight. By 2020, this could stretch to 6.3 million overweight and three million obese. These are startling figures and demand the attention of the Howard government and the health minister. If we say that the estimated growing rate of childhood obesity of one per cent a year continues, half of all young Australians will be overweight by 2025. Clearly, this is an unsatisfactory state of affairs.

I refer to the fact that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are twice as likely to be obese than non-Indigenous people. There are a number of historical factors, including the removal of children from their families, which have meant that a generation of mothers has not learnt traditional childrearing and feeding practices. A recent study shows us that 28 per cent of Indigenous low birth weight babies could be attributed to maternal malnutrition, and obesity is a factor there too.

It is time for the government to act, but it has been remiss. Labor state governments have moved to address the issue of childhood obesity, but the minister continues to blame parents for the national epidemic, washing his hands of responsibility. Parents and families for Minister Abbott exist in hermetically sealed isolation—not impacted by government policy, the commercial sector and its expertly constructed advertising campaign or the substantial budgets that go with it. I think a reasonable person would accept what Kaye Mehta, the nutrition lecturer at Flinders University, says:

Food advertising does create increased preferences for those food products and increased pester power to their parents.

That is why Labor supports the Australian Medical Association’s call for a nutrition survey—the last one was conducted 10 years ago—and a national nutrition centre to coordinate a national response to Australia’s obesity problem. Additionally, Labor calls on the government to conduct a national audit into junk food advertising during children’s programs, examining the impact it has on children’s health.

This is urgently needed. If the minister addressed himself to the situation that I have described—a national childhood epidemic in obesity—then it is absolutely clear that the government must act. The government’s 2004 announcement for ,16 million over four years to curb Australia’s declining physical activity needs to be brought into effect now. The National Obesity Taskforce’s recommendations to understand and assess the impact of current food and drinks advertising practices on community levels of overweight and obese people need to be taken into account by the government. It is time for the federal government to accept its taskforce’s advice and do something about childhood obesity. (Time expired)