STATEMENTS BY SENATORS

Senator WHITTEN (Western Australia) (13:40): I would like to speak about something I'm very passionate about: food. Not just food, though—good food or, more specifically, food that is good for you. I grew up in the seventies, before we had a food pyramid, before there were daily intake percentages and before we had health stars.

We also had an obesity rate of less than 10 per cent in this country. Today it is upward of 30 per cent. What changed?

Back then, more people grew food, there were more home cooked meals and you didn't need a science degree to read the ingredients list. Why is it that the more we focus on health, the unhealthier we become? It's because health is for sale.

It has been turned into a commodity that can be bought and sold. The health star system is a glaring example. Milo cereal was given 4.5 stars, and Berri fruit juice icy poles were given five stars.

When vested interests get involved in health, real health gets pushed to the side. We see it happening again today. Per the West Australian newspaper, the National Health and Medical Research Council is planning to factor sustainability into its official Australian dietary guidelines, trying to label livestock unsustainable.

What a load of bull! Once again we see something other than health take centre stage in the health debate. The NHMRC has axed the lone voice that gave balance to the argument from its sustainability working group: CSIRO's Principal Research Scientist, Brad Ridoutt.

Dr Ridoutt's research concluded that dietary choices have only a very modest impact on environmental outcomes. Health should never play second fiddle to climate alarmism. While I'm passionate about food, I'm even more passionate about good nutrition and good health for the Australian people.

In the words of Hippocrates, 'Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.' One Nation is the only party that committed to making Australia healthy again.