Matt Thistlethwaite (Kingsford Smith, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

I congratulate the member for Moreton for putting this item on the agenda today. Diabetes and the incidence in Australia and the rest of the world is a massive issue, and 14 November is World Diabetes Day, aimed at raising awareness about diabetes.

Australia and many parts of the developed and underdeveloped world are literally eating ourselves to death. When it comes to the increased intake of sugar, salt, processed foods with a lack of regular exercise in our diets, we are seeing an explosion in obesity, diabetes, cancer and other preventable diseases—and that is having a dramatic effect on our health system and our national economy.

As is outlined in the motion, diabetes is a significant preventable health problem here in Australia, with 1.1 million people diagnosed with diabetes. The numbers grow each year, with an additional 100,000 people being added to that list. The estimated cost of the affliction to the Australian economy is $14.6 billion per annum.

Unfortunately, we are not alone: the prevalence of diabetes throughout the world and, particularly within our region—most notably, in the Pacific—is high and increasing. In our area, in the Pacific Islands, it ranges from 14 per cent in the Solomon Islands to 47 per cent of the population—almost half—in American Samoa. That is outrageous.

According to the World Health Organization, in at least 10 Pacific Island countries, more than 50 per cent of the population is overweight—a risk factor for diabetes—with 51 per cent of people in Kiribati overweight, 45 per cent in the Marshall Islands, and 30 per cent in Fiji. Pacific Islanders are now 9.3 times more likely to die from diabetes than non-Pacific people, and lifestyle changes are the main cause.

The increased incidence of diabetes and obesity is not abating across the Pacific, and a drastic shift away from traditional to a more Western influenced, processed diet with the associated high levels of sugar are a fair indicator of the blame. Alarmingly, according to statistics published in the Pacific Peoples Health magazine in New Zealand, a Pacific woman is expected to die 7.1 years before her non-Pacific counterpart, while a Pacific male is expected to live 8.2 years less than a non-Pacific man.

In government, Labor invested in initiatives designed to increase quality of life in the Pacific Islands through healthy lifestyle activities. A lot of that was aimed at fostering a greater awareness of the risks of type 2 diabetes—and I note that this year's World Diabetes Day has a particular emphasis on healthy eating as a key factor in managing type 1 diabetes and avoiding type 2 diabetes. Many of Labor's programs in government were aimed at that particular element of preventing diabetes. Funded by AusAID and managed by the Australian Sports Commission, the Pacific Sports Partnerships involved the Australian government partnering with Australian sports organisations and their Pacific, regional and national counterparts to deliver sports-based programs that contribute to increasing levels of regular participation by Pacific Islanders in quality sport initiatives, improving health-related behaviours of Pacific Islanders which impact on non-communicable-disease risk factors, focusing on increasing levels of physical activity, and improving attitudes towards the increased inclusion of people with disability in Pacific communities. By all accounts, these were successful programs. They included organisations such as the AFL, athletics, badminton, basketball, cricket, football, rugby, netball, swimming, table tennis and volleyball.

In conclusion, in support of this World Diabetes Day motion: Australia needs to tackle this issue of unhealthy eating, leading to obesity and leading to preventable diseases such as diabetes. But most importantly, we also need to be aware that many of the foods which are processed in our nation and in developed countries and which are sent to developing nations have a big impact on the diets and health of people living in those communities, to the extent that there are much greater risks for those people. More must be done to tackle diabetes at home and throughout the Pacific region in particular.

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