I rise to talk about the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Health and Ageing report Weighing it up: obesity in Australia. I acknowledge the contribution of the member for Hindmarsh and the member for McPherson. I also see other committee members here. The member for Dawson and the member for Kingston are in the chamber, and I look forward to hearing and reading their contributions as well, particularly that of the member for Kingston, who gave us a great display of Tai Chi prowess on the Gold Coast trip that we had. I am sure her hamstrings are still suffering from that trip, but it was a great display of Tai Chi.

I spoke about this report previously and endorsed the chair’s comments at that time, and I also acknowledged his efforts during the inquiry. Again I say to you, Steve Georganas, the member for Hindmarsh, thank you. I would also like to take this opportunity to recognise the efforts of your staffer Heather Atcheson, who travelled with us on some of the hearings and helped us tremendously during that period of time. If you could pass that on to Heather, that would be great. I also acknowledge the previous deputy chair of the committee, the member for Menzies, Mr Kevin Andrews, whose place I took on this committee. As I said previously, some of the other committee members are here, and I look forward to their contributions, as they were contributing during the inquiry as well.

This inquiry was into what is seen as an increasing problem in Australia—the level of obesity amongst adults and children of our nation. This report made 20 recommendations, ranging from urging the government to continue supporting existing programs, such as the Active After-school Communities program and the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Program—which unfortunately I was not able to attend, because I was not on the committee at that time, but listening to the member for McPherson and the member for Hindmarsh it seems as though I missed out on an excellent meal and contributions by some young people in our community—through to recommending the development and implementation of the healthy food code of good practice in conjunction with industry. The recommendations considered tax incentives and what more governments could do. Food labelling was considered—and I know the member for Kingston was particularly enamoured with that approach. She unfortunately did not get up the recommendation that she wanted, but it was a great effort and she did a lot of lobbying in the background. Urban planning was seen as an important step to encourage Australians to be healthy and active.

While the report recognises that individuals are ultimately responsible for their own health and wellbeing, the inquiry has highlighted that the modern environment in which we all live can make weight loss very difficult. It is stated in chapter 6 of the report that any strategy to successfully combat the growing problem of obesity will need to include community involvement and programs that are community centred. All three levels of government will need to be involved and be supportive of any group within the community that runs programs that are designed to encourage community participation and involve people from the local community to take ownership of these programs.

Many areas were covered in this report. As the chair mentioned, the personal, economic and social costs to Australia from obesity place stress on our community and health services in all areas and underpin the need for action. Many people have different and varying views on this subject, extending from the simplistic solution—which someone contributed to me on a flight coming over from Perth one day—of increasing breastfeeding rates in Australia from 19 per cent to over 50 per cent to help fight obesity and other chronic illnesses in our society to another simple act of reducing our intake of fructose.

Community awareness of this societal problem is increasing, and we must continue to alert all Australians to the benefit of a healthy lifestyle. In my previous speech I mentioned that I personally tried fructose reduction in my diet and six months later I am 10 kilograms lighter.

Mr Bidgood interjecting—

Mr IRONS —I will take that as a compliment, thank you. I thank David Gillespie, who came and presented to us on the Gold Coast, for his evidence and his book Sweet Poison, which I know some of the committee read. I know the member for Kingston had doubts about it, but I am living proof that it does work. It focused my thoughts on what I was eating, on my intake, and also on my output of physical effort. Again I thank David Gillespie. Not every solution is going to work for every person but it has worked for me, and I think if that can help other people to focus on a healthy lifestyle and activity that would be great.

On the matter of submissions to the inquiry, I must congratulate all the groups, associations, businesses and individuals who presented to the committee. The individuals who had the courage to tell their stories were fantastic and I applaud them. The member for Lyons came and spoke to us as well. I was not at that particular hearing, but I applaud him for his opening up about his personal situation. The report also dealt with bariatric surgery, which is the surgical reduction of the stomach and includes lap band surgery and gastric bypass.

Unfortunately the media focus after the release of this report was on the recommendation that said, ‘Obesity should be placed on the Medicare Benefits Schedule as a chronic disease requiring an individual management plan.’ The media were more interested in the fact that this would lead to people obtaining free surgery for stomach lap banding at the expense of the taxpayer. If the media had bothered to understand the full implication of the report, they would have understood that the inclusion of this type of surgery on the Medicare schedule would give access to people who could not afford it and, from evidence given during this inquiry, to people from lower socioeconomic areas, who are most likely to need the surgery. The benefits to society would far outweigh the costs and might also lead to social and economic benefits as well as just health and physical benefits. The media failed to recognise that the report indicated that people in certain environments need assistance and this surgery would have been a final solution, not a first choice, for anyone who qualified for lap-banding surgery.

The reports we received on this surgery are positive but, again, as the chair stated, the committee is wary of giving open slather access to bariatric surgery. It has to be maintained in a clinical program, and many aspects of that program would need to go to the wellbeing of the people who are involved in bariatric surgery. On radio 6PR in Perth, this report was discussed on talkback radio twice during the day after it was released, with some radio callers calling in saying how their lives had changed since the surgery.

We must all treat obesity as not actually a disease but a result of the person’s environment, lifestyle and eating habits. A holistic approach should be taken. The chair stated in his speech that a number of witnesses called for changes to be made to the health system to better treat and manage Australians who are overweight or obese. I believe that the committee has made recommendations in this report that will put Australia on the pathway to achieving a reduction in obesity levels in Australia.

Before I conclude, I would like to say that in my electorate I have started to implement a program which will be called the Swan 10/10 program. That will involve the community as a whole in active lifestyles and healthy eating options. We are just getting our ducks in a row and making sure that all the i’s are dotted and the t’s are crossed before we launch the program. I look forward to that, and it is purely based on the efforts of this obesity inquiry that I have decided to activate a combination of the Gold Coast program and the WellingTONNE Challenge in my electorate. I hope this report contributes to the bettering of our lifestyles and health in Australia. I commend the report to the House.