Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Senator Fierravanti-Wells makes a very valid point: too much. It is about what the food is and the quantity that goes in the mouth. For lots of people obesity is in many ways a simple problem: it is about what goes in and what goes out in terms of energy levels. That is not the case all the time. I recognise that for others there are more complex health factors at play. Certainly we have clear evidence that children are becoming overweight before they can possibly even be influenced by the type of advertising that is targeted by this legislation. So we need to bring the focus and the pressure back to parental responsibility. It used to be the case that one of the main driving forces in society was the social pressure and social accountability placed on families and everybody else regarding the way they behave. In a sense, there was mutual responsibility within families for the way other members of that family looked, dressed, behaved et cetera. Whilst that is not always fair, there is certainly a place for it, and there is certainly a place for it in the relationship between parents and their young children.

Governments of course can take their share of the blame in this debate. It is not about their failure to ban junk food advertising, but governments can take their share of the blame because governments have played a major role in creating a culture that is wrong or misplaced. It somehow shifts the notion of responsibility so that responsibility no longer necessarily lies directly with parents or family; there is a notion of responsibility that somehow governments and society are to blame, that governments need to step in to fix things where society has failed, and that it is all up to governments to address these problems. They have managed to create this culture not just in Australia but in other Western governments as well.

Our governments here, and I cite all of them including the last one—of which I was all too briefly a member—have managed to create this culture through the expansion of welfare to levels that stretch out way beyond those who need a basic safety net. They provide handouts—and we see the current government providing many, many handouts at present—to people who are past the need for basic safety nets. They have managed to expand it through the increased expectation that, when you have a problem, you call on the government to fix it. You do not get together as a local community and address the local problem you have; you write a letter to the minister and ask them to get a government department to investigate it and fix it. We have developed this culture of an increased dependence and an abrogation of responsibility. It is something that we need to tackle. Governments can share their part of the blame as well because, of course, the reduction in things like sport in schools, which is a key factor in this whole childhood obesity debate, is too often overlooked. We have seen a reduction in the activity of sport in schools and in local communities being driven partly by the madness of our litigious society which has made the ability of communities to encourage safe physical activity so much harder.

Senator Polley, in speaking before me in this debate, talked about the fact that parents are left to do all the dirty work. Yes, they are. That is part and parcel of the responsibility one takes on as a parent. Should I have the enormous opportunity to be a parent one day, I expect that that will be part of the responsibility I and my wife will take on. Part of the deal that you sign up to as a parent is being responsible for the dirty work. Children are going to like junk food. That is a simple matter of fact. Junk food that is particularly for children is sweet and tastes good, and so the sampling of junk food is probably enough for children to want more of it, regardless of its advertising content or the extent to which it is advertised. Again, it will be for parents to self-regulate in the family home. Governments need to arm parents with the information, expertise and knowledge of food; however, I think most people have that knowledge. If you ask people about food, they know what is healthy to eat and what is unhealthy to eat. They know that fresh foods such as fruit and vegetables are good for you and that foods with a high sugar content or foods that are highly processed are not good for you. Most people understand that. Most people already get it. We need to place the responsibility on them to take greater care for what they consume.

We also get hysteria in this debate. A couple of years ago, Monica from Play School was attacked for daring to appear in a Coco Pops advertisement. The debate rages out of control sometimes and beyond what is the norm. I am conscious of time and that others wish to speak in this debate, so I will conclude by urging the Senate to reject this bill, not because of the technicalities or technical arguments of which other senators have spoken but because this is a bigger issue. It is a cultural issue. It is one that we need to tackle in a far more holistic sense, and it goes to that notion of individual responsibility, family responsibility and parental responsibility. We are not going to fix childhood obesity by banning television advertising, and nobody in this room seriously believes that that would fix it. We need to get back to focusing on how we can help those communities by encouraging a level of responsibility that can and should make a difference, and with that I urge the Senate to reject this bill.