﻿Mr SPEAKER: Question No 5, Hon Annette King.
Hon ANNETTE KING (Deputy Leader—Labour)
to the Minister of Health: Is he satisfied his response
to the childhood obesity epidemic is fit for purpose; if so, why?
Hon Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN (Minister of Health):
Yes, tackling the issue of obesity is a key priority
for this Government. That is why we launched
the Childhood Obesity Plan, with a range of interventions
across Government, the private sector, communities, schools,
and families. The package has three focus areas
made up of 22 initiatives dealing with food, environment,
and being active at each stage of life,
starting during pregnancy and early childhood.
Development of this initial package drew on recent NZ
and international evidence, including the interim report
from the World Health Organization's Commission
on Ending Childhood Obesity. A technical advisory group
also provided advice to the Ministry of Health
on evidence for effective interventions and targets.
Hon Annette King: If the initiatives his Government
has put in place to reduce childhood obesity since 2009,
including dumping tuck shop food guidelines, have worked,
why has obesity in children aged between 2 and 14 increased
from 8.3% to almost 11% under this Government's watch?
Hon Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN: The member needs to remember
that this is a long-term challenge.
Governments across the world are facing up to the issue,
but it is not an easy one to turn around,
and I welcome her constructive comments in the wider debate.
Hon Annette King: If he backs his recently announced NZ
Health Strategy, which states that it focuses
on evidence-based initiatives, will he now
adjust his 22-point plan following research
from Auckland University, which said his plan was
"just business as usual and unlikely to make a difference"?
Hon Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN: I will be backing our plan,
and I do not intend to readjust it—unlike Mrs King,
who last November ruled out a sugar tax and then recently said
that actually they might do a sugar tax.
Hon Annette King: Why don't you answer your own question?
Mr SPEAKER: Order! [Interruption] Order!
Because this is a chance for the Opposition
to ask Ministers questions.
Hon Annette King: If he believes in an evidence-based approach,
will he heed the warning from Consumer NZ
and public health experts, who say the star-rating model
he is promoting is flawed and is misleading parents
into thinking they are giving their children
healthy breakfast food when it is loaded with sugar?
Hon Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN: I have not seen those comments
from Consumer NZ, but what I can tell you is that
the Health Star Rating has had an interim assessment,
and it is going to have a full assessment in 2019.
We are constantly looking at ways in which we can make sure
that we turn this problem around. Rather than criticism,
I think Mrs King should get on board and come up
with something constructive.
Hon Annette King: I have, Mr Speaker, plenty—
if you want me to table it?
Mr SPEAKER: No, but I would be interested in the supplementary.
Hon Annette King: Is Healthy Families, a programme that
was brought over from Australia, a success,
when it has spent $14 million, with one provider collapsing,
and its main project appears to be implementing
water-only policies in schools—something that
could have been done for nothing if the Government
had been prepared to show some courage and commitment?
Hon Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN: I am very pleased that
the member brought up Healthy Families.
I invite her to come with me to visit any of those
10 programmes in places like West Auckland,
where Labour is trying to get its polling rate above 26%,
or places like Invercargill, which was a Labour stronghold—
Mr SPEAKER: Order!
Hon Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN: —because there is a lot
of good stuff that is going on there.
I invite her to come to places like the East Coast,
where, of course, no one votes Labour any more.
But she should come and see the wide variety
of initiatives bought into by communities that used to vote Labour.
Mr SPEAKER: Order! We do not need that as part of the answer.
[Interruption] Order!
Question No 6.
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