Kedgley Sue: Estimates Debate — In Committee 
Kedgley Sue: Estimates Debate — In Committee 
[Volume:618;Page:14355] 
SUE KEDGLEY (Green) 
: 
 I would like to focus initially on one particular aspect of the health budget which is the implementation of the Government’s recently released Healthy Eating - Healthy Action plan to reduce obesity in New Zealand. The Ministry of Health recently put out a report that acknowledged 8000 to 9000 New Zealanders die from what it called dietary-related risk factors a year. That is so astonishing that it is almost hard to believe but it is true and it therefore suggests that much of our focus in health should be on improving the diet of New Zealanders. Twice as many people are estimated to die from dietary-related factors than from smoking but whereas the Government has put a tremendous across-the-board effort and resources into a major effort to reduce the health risks of smoking when it comes to the healthy eating plan and the tackling of obesity it has unfortunately—and to our great astonishment— provided no new resources. We looked in vain through the Estimates for such resources. Essentially the Government is full of wonderful recommendations and good ideas but there are no resources and no national leadership and there is a laissez-faire approach that basically relies on voluntary action by the food industry. It treats the whole issue of obesity as if it could be solved by personal responsibility. Unfortunately that wonderful plan with all its wonderful ideas has about as much chance in my view of curbing obesity in New Zealand as I have of flying to the moon. 
What is needed if we are to turn around and improve the diet of New Zealanders and in particular our children is leadership resources and for the Government to be prepared to tackle the hard issues. There is nothing here in the Estimates calling for any restrictions on the advertising of energy-dense low-nutrient foods for children which the World Health Organization states is one of the major underlying issues that contribute to obesity and nothing about removing the selling of high-sugar soft drinks from schools and hospitals or even a requirement for comprehensive nutrition education in all schools and preschools—or indeed for the teaching of cooking skills in our schools. 
 When the Minister came before the select committee she said the Government was not going to take a bossy nanny State approach and the food industry had shown great willingness to work on this issue. 
We are delighted if the food industry is prepared to collaborate with the Government but we ask whether the food industry’s collaboration is part of a public relations initiative to try to stave off the necessity for regulation. I suspect it is the latter and frankly it is naive to expect the industry to curb its highly profitable promotion of fatty sugary foods to children. We have had the experience of the marketing undertaken by the tobacco and the baby milk industries which has shown that voluntary approaches are ineffective. They are great for public relations but they do not actually bring about the changes that are needed if we are to seriously reduce the number of New Zealanders who die of dietary-related factors from the present level of 8000 to 9000 a year. The World Health Organization points out that for every dollar that it spends on trying to improve the nutrition of the world’s population $5 is spent by the food industry on promoting unhealthy processed food. 
The truth is there is so much pressure on children to eat unhealthy food that it is becoming more and more difficult for parents to get children to eat ordinary nutritional food—to eat a healthy balanced diet. We have children who are becoming addicted to bad eating habits and to unhealthy food at a very young age and that can of course condemn them literally to a lifetime of ill health. So there is little point in fiddling around the edges and trying to say all sorts of wonderful platitudes about our concern about obesity in New Zealand if we are going to allow the children of our nation to be bombarded with unhealthy food.