GREENS’ INITIATIVE TO TACKLE CHILDHOOD OBESITY RATES

Community Driven Solution Needed

The Tasmanian Greens today announced they will hold an expert roundtable to develop an action plan to tackle childhood obesity, in light of the shocking findings contained in the State of Public Health Report 2013 released last week.

Greens Health spokesperson Paul O’Halloran MP, who was joined by international renowned epidemiologist and Greens Franklin candidate Dr Rosalie Woodruff, said the figures contained in the report ring alarm bells especially in regard to spiralling child obesity rates.

Mr O’Halloran pointed to the following of the Report’s findings:

• 46.8% of teenage mothers smoke daily
• Obese and overweight children between the ages of 5 and 17 have almost doubled in the past five years from 18.6% to 28.8%, the highest of any state. In the five year period the number of 5-17 year olds who are overweight or obese has increased by 7000 to 20000!
• One in four pregnant women were obese at the time of conception.

“These figures have absolutely shocked me,” Mr O’Halloran said.

“We are facing the very real prospect of my children and grandchildren’s generation having a shorter lifespan than my generation.”

“The Greens are not going to sit back and allow this to happen. Dr Woodruff and I, on behalf of the Greens, will be hosting a roundtable of health groups and community representatives to develop an action plan to reverse the childhood obesity trends in this state.”

“The recent shocking obesity figures for Tasmanian kids – an increase of 10% in the last 5 years – is the last straw”, said Dr Woodruff.

“As a scientist, it shocks me that these figures have jumped so fast. Unhealthy food and eating habits is the major battleground when it comes to health.”

“As well as a generation of children growing up less physically active, we have spiralling rates of type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and organ failure.”

“These obesity rates have cataclysmic consequences for people, families, communities, Tasmania and our broader health system,” Mr O’Halloran said.

“As a community we need to draw a line in sand and say enough is enough. We need to band together and work to drive these shocking rates of obesity down.”

“We all want our kids to grow healthy and eating well. The Greens will stand with parents and nans and pops working hard to give their kids the best start in life. We need to find a way to engage with and help families, schools, and support groups to tackle childhood obesity.”

“This will not be a bureaucratic solution, it needs to be a grass roots solution owned and driven by parents, educators and GPs.”

“Our current food system is broken. Food advertising, distribution and labelling is dominated by the interests of powerful food companies. We can no longer pretend it’s something we can solve on our own whether as parents, as GPs, or as individuals struggling to stop our ever-expanding waistlines,” Dr Woodruff said.

“This is about our super-sized eating environment. It’s about the dramatic increase in sugar in our diet, and it’s about being kept in the dark about the food we’re eating.”

“We cannot expect the health bureaucracy to solve this spiralling problem on its own. This is a challenge that the entire community has the opportunity to assist in turning around, and we need to engage at the coal-face.”

“By hosting a roundtable of community leaders and health stakeholders, the Greens want to encourage those affected to take ownership and control of both the problem and the solution.”

“A stakeholder, GP, and parents driven action plan that is supported by government departments such as Health and Education should assist in delivering an effective targeted strategy, and could also serve as a national pilot scheme,” Dr Woodruff said.

Mr O’Halloran pointed to the recently established Joint House Committee on Preventative Health, which was the result of a Greens push in the State Parliament.

“The State of Public Health Report notes the timeliness of this Parliamentary Inquiry which the Greens initiated, and welcomes the role it could play to boost the focus on effective preventative health strategies, such as obesity.”

“The Report also states that while the health system is not in crisis, more needs to be done to develop and implement a statewide and comprehensive preventative health approach.”

“This is where our proposed roundtable comes in. It will be able to feed into the Parliamentary Inquiry to ensure a comprehensive whole-of-government approach is taken to assist those at the coal-face.”

“We can no longer leave it to the food industry to regulate their behaviour. And we also can’t put this issue off, once again, to the black hole of national talks. It’s time to do what we can in Tasmania for our children’s health,” Mr O’Halloran concluded.

Reference: State of Public Health 2013, Department of Health and Human Services, May 2013.
Paul O’Halloran MP Greens Health spokesperson Sunday, 2 June 2013