Page 3736 - Week 09 - Wednesday, 24 August 2011
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That is why the Greens are very pleased that this bill has been put on the table. I congratulate Ms Bresnan and her office for the work that has been put in and for the consultation that was done. I also acknowledge the government for coming on board to support this legislation today. Again, I put that call out to the Canberra Liberals: obesity is a major issue. As I said, that startling fact that came out that there may be many children today who will have a lower life expectancy than their parents is one that we need to seriously take on board.
We need to ensure that parents have good information around what are the healthy choices for their children as far as food is concerned, but also understanding for many of our children that there is takeaway night. There are times when, of course, our children will get that takeaway and may get that great big hamburger and the side of chips, and that is absolutely fine. It is just that it is the occasional food, and parents need to have that information to make good choices.
MS BRESNAN (Brindabella) (11.50), in reply: I would like to thank members for their contributions today and to thank the minister for supporting the bill. I would just like to address a couple of the points that were raised in the speeches from the Chief Minister, the health minister, and from Mr Hanson. First off, while I have the chance, I would like to thank Kate Taylor in my office for all the work that she has done on this. This has been work done over many, many months. I think it is wonderful that we will see this bill passed today. Also, Tom Warne-Smith in Ms Hunter’s office has helped out on this bill as well.
Just on the consultation—the Chief Minister said it herself—we wrote to over 250 stakeholders. That was not just the head offices of franchises. We also wrote to individual franchisees. We actually wrote to the businesses as well as to the individuals plus the peak organisations that represent various businesses in that area. We met with those groups also. We also wrote to businesses who might not come under the legislation now but that might be on the cusp of coming in to advise them of this legislation and we asked whether they had any questions around that.
On the consultation also, we did distribute the bill to peak health groups with an interest and who might have points of view on this legislation. I know that they also then sent information out to their members. So it did have quite a wide distribution. We also heard from a number of constituents on it based on the media that went out about it. I think we have done everything we possibly could to consult as widely as possible on this with people who would be interested and also with the public.
I think the point that I made in my letter to Ms Gallagher, which the Chief Minister referred to today, is the reality of the situation too. We non-executive members simply do not have the resources of a department behind us to do the consultation on the level the government does. As I said, we worked very hard on this to get the information out to as many people as possible. I think we have incorporated feedback that people have brought back to us as well. I would argue, and I believe, that our consultation has been extremely thorough on this particular bill, plus it is an issue that is being discussed in a national context. That is something that people are very aware of. A lot of views have been presented on this particular issue.
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