Lisa Singh

LABOR SENATOR FOR TASMANIA

SENATOR THE HON LISA SINGH

DEPUTY CHAIR, SENATE SELECT COMMITTEE INTO THE OBESITY EPIDEMIC IN AUSTRALIA

I welcome this week’s establishment of a Senate Select Committee into the Obesity Epidemic in Australia.

This inquiry is an important opportunity to seriously consider the causes and implications of the obesity in Australian communities. 

In 2015, Australian Bureau of Statistics data recorded that 63.4 per cent of Australians aged 18 years and over were overweight or obese. 

In other words, of the 11.2 million overweight Australians in 2015 – 4.9 million were obese. 

Childhood obesity will be a key focus of the Committee. We will investigate a range of factors – like the food industry’s role in contributing to poor diets – that are increasing obesity and the short and long-term harm it is causing to Australian children. 

We will listen to evidence about the health and economic burden on Australians, the effectiveness of existing programs and what can be done to prevent and even reverse the problem.

I hope this inquiry will provide my fellow parliamentarians, and the Australian public, with a greater understanding of obesity and what can and should be done to improve the lives of the millions of Australian men, women and children it affects.

The closing date for submissions to the Senate Select Committee into the Obesity Epidemic is 6 July 2018. The Committee will report on the 14 August 2018.  More information about it can be found here.

FRIDAY, 18 MAY 2018

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