Brett Mason (Queensland, Liberal Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Health and Ageing) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator McLucas for her comments. Firstly, I would like to assure Senator Siewert that even the more liberal amongst us—indeed libertarian amongst us—do not believe that restrictions on advertising constitute a nanny state. Be not concerned about that. Indeed, this morning I read the Australian newspaper and saw that Kellogg’s has just announced that, because of concerns about obesity, they will no longer use cartoons and toys to advertise cereals for young children. So you make a very valid point.

As Senator McLucas said, this is not really the place to proceed with this sort of amendment. Australia currently has policy and regulatory requirements that limit television advertising of food and drink to children during children’s viewing times. Like Senator McLucas, we do not believe that it is appropriate for legislative action in this area while the Australian Communications and Media Authority is reviewing the current standards. In fact, public consultation is yet to be concluded and the resulting public comment should, I think, inform any legislative change in this area. So I think this proposal is a bit premature; we should wait for the public consultation process to be conducted. I understand that a discussion paper calling for public submissions is due to be released this month—June 2007.