Steve Irons (Swan, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I would just like to welcome the minister to the chamber. As the Chair of the Standing Committee on Health, it is appreciated when I get the opportunity not only to meet with you on a regular basis but to give you some questions on consideration in detail.

The minister visited my electorate in March this year, and I just heard the minister, in her previous answer, talking about the consultation process that she takes with all the legislation and changes that she is making to the health system. She took a consultative process with meeting with doctors in my electorate in March this year at my electoral office. That was a great example of the process of consultation that the minister is taking with the industry, and during that time we spoke about the medical school at Curtin University. It is great to see that the health minister and the prime minister have come on board and announced the Curtin medical school, which will be based in Midland in the electorate where the prime minister came over and announced it not so long ago. I appreciate and thank the minister for her support in that particular area, knowing that it flew in the face of AMA recommendations, but we have some great people from the industry like Fiona Stanley, who supported the Curtin medical school based in Midland. As Curtin University is based in my electorate in Swan, it is great that they were able to get that funding.

To move on to another part of your portfolio, which is sport—as the minister knows, I have a deep interest in sport—it is great that you were able to attend the PGA awards night that night in March as well. They were very pleased. The feedback I got from them was that they were very happy with your understanding of their sport, particularly during a speech that you made, and they understood that you got their sport, which is great. I think I also mentioned to you about the funding that they are looking for—a $10 million grant for their centre in Melbourne—which they will continue to apply for through the Regional Infrastructure Program and which I am sure that you will be happy to support.

As chair of the health committee during the last parliament—a couple of years ago—we did an inquiry into obesity. As the minister would know, obesity is a big issue in Australia. In particular, the 2011-12 Australian Bureau of Statistics' health survey revealed that in that financial year five million Australians aged 18 and over were overweight or obese. This accounts for almost two in three Australian adults. Of even greater concern, though, was the fact that this survey also revealed that one in four or 25 per cent of Australian children were also overweight or obese at this time, and these numbers are only increasing.

During that inquiry we heard from many people within the industry about ways to reduce obesity in Australia. One of the things that came out of that particular inquiry was that—Madam Deputy Speaker Prentice, you might be interested to know—a lot of it was to do with basically what goes in and what goes out, and effort is helpful in reducing obesity. Having athletic or physical activity in schools is vitally important to reduce the amount of obesity in our nation.

One of the other things that the minister might not be aware of is that I consider my electorate of Swan to be one of the most sporting oriented electorates in Australia. The reasons for that are that we have two horse racetracks in my electorate, the greyhounds and the new stadium—which we visited and had a look at—coming in Perth in my electorate. We also have the Perth Football Club; Curtin University, which has many sporting facilities; and quite a few schools which have great sport playing fields that are utilised during the weekends and most times during the week.

Encouraging children to participate in sport is not only good for their health and wellbeing; it is a great way to encourage social interaction and competition. As someone who spent five years coaching junior football, it is vital that I see participation not only by the children but by the coaches and parents, and also all the things that enable them to participate in sport and reduce obesity within the nation.

Minister, could you outline the progress and the implementation of the Sporting Schools program, in which the Abbott government will provide approximately $40 million in 2015-16 to increase the health and activity levels of primary school children through sport across this nation?

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