Page 3523 - Week 11 - Wednesday, 22 October 2014
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The Heart Foundation originally developed the campaign in Western Australia in partnership with the Cancer Council for the Western Australian Department of Health. It is a healthy lifestyle campaign aimed at adults aged 25 to 64 years. So far the live lighter campaign evaluation results have been highly successful in Western Australia. Based on anti-smoking campaigns, the live lighter campaign advertisements are graphic in purpose. It is necessary to get the message through to the public.
In 2014 the Chief Health Officer’s report noted that 63 per cent of Canberra’s adults are overweight or obese and this rate is increasing. Live lighter’s graphic “grabbable gut outside means toxic fat inside” advertisement is a sit-up-and-take-notice message. It is the same kind of message which has been effective for HIV/AIDS, which has been effective for smoking and which has been effective for getting people to wear seatbelts while they are in their cars.
Visceral fat is particularly harmful and lies deep within the abdominal cavity located around the organs—heart, kidney and liver. A large waist is a risk factor for type 2 diabetes, heart disease and some cancers. The good news is that the middle-age spread need not be inevitable or an enduring fact. Heart Foundation chief executive Tony Stubbs says that small changes in the way you eat and how active you are can have a big impact on reducing your chances of getting heart disease, cancer and diabetes.
Live lighter provides new insights into the meaning of being overweight and motivates and moves people into action about their own health and wellbeing. While too much fat is harmful, we do need some fat for good health. This is why live lighter talks about achieving and maintaining a healthy weight rather than focusing on weight loss. The campaign encourages discussion about overweight and obesity as a critical population-level health issue while also providing the resources and tools to help people make and maintain the healthy lifestyle changes that are useful to them.
The live lighter website has testimonials, facts, recipes, meals and activity planners. This campaign is a vital component of the suite of activities supporting the ACT government’s towards zero growth healthy weight action plan. I congratulate the ACT government and the Heart Foundation ACT on their partnership and their ongoing commitment to the health and wellbeing of the ACT community.
I look forward to seeing the campaign in action on our television screens—it already is—on our bus stops, social media and all around us very soon and seeing Canberrans taking up a healthy lifestyle challenge.
Master Builders Association ACT
MR COE (Ginninderra) (6.46): I rise this evening to speak about the Master Builders Association of the ACT. The MBA is Australia’s major building and construction association and the national body is the oldest industry association in the country. The movement began in the early 1870s and was federated nationally in 1890. MBA ACT was formed in 1925 and now has over 1,200 members from five building and construction sectors—residential builders, commercial builders, civil contractors, subcontractors, trade contractors and suppliers and professional consultants.
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