CHILDHOOD OBESITY

Mr PISONI (Unley) (16:55): My question is to the Minister for Education and Children's Services, who was at the launch yesterday that the minister just spoke about. Why does the government accept money from McDonald's to advertise its fried chicken on Adelaide's trams while at the same time claiming it is concerned about childhood obesity? At 33 metres long and 3.5 metres high, the government-owned trams plastered with fried chicken advertising were seen by thousands of schoolchildren in the first weeks of the new school year, and it must be one of the largest and most prominent advertising spaces available to McDonald's to buy in South Australia. Minister Zollo in the other house agrees. She will be launching her program on the trams. She said on radio yesterday—

The SPEAKER: Order! The member for Unley will resume his seat. He has gone well beyond what is necessary for an explanation. I call the Minister for Education and Children's Services.

The Hon. J.D. LOMAX-SMITH (Adelaide—Minister for Education and Children's Services, Minister for Tourism, Minister for the City of Adelaide) (16:56): I know nothing about trams, but I do know about EPODE, and one of the joys of this new program just announced by the Minister for Health is that it is not about blame, marginalisation or talking about food being bad: it is about understanding about balance, life skills and food qualities and not stigmatising particular products.

I was interested that in my discussions with Jean-Michel Borys he was very firm in his view that you need to have partnerships with industry and not to stigmatise food products but to promote moderation, balance and community involvement whereby proprietors of businesses, sellers and producers, schools and communities work together to understand about a healthy lifestyle.