JOURNALIST:
Prime Minister, is childhood obesity at crisis point in Australia?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well childhood obesity is a big problem in this country, it's got to be tackled in an intelligent way. You have encourage people to eat better, that's parents, it's the people who influence children most are parents. Children have got to be encouraged to exercise more and for that matter adults have got to be encouraged to exercise more.
JOURNALIST:
There's an article in the Herald today about a plan that the Government may have in relation to childhood obesity, can you give us an indication...
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I can certainly tell you that we will be making a major announcement on this issue in a couple of weeks time, it will outline a sensible plan, a plan that will involve parents, a plan that will involve the community and a plan that's designed to draw attention to the issue and to encourage parents in particular to influence the diets that their children have. It won't involve a blanket ban on food advertising on television which is ill-judged. There's nothing wrong in a fast food meal itself, there's nothing wrong in having a McDonald's, it's how many McDonald's you have. And if you ban McDonald's advertising you might as well say well let's ban Panadol because if you take too many Panadol it's bad for your kidneys I think. If you take far too many it's particularly bad for everything. If you ban alcohol you could argue the same thing. Alcohol in moderation is certainly not something to be discouraged, but alcohol in excess can have catastrophic personal consequences. So this proposal of Mr Latham's to ban the advertising of food is just very ill-judged and ill-prepared and it's a very top of the head kind of proposition.
JOURNALIST:
Is it going too far to say he's unfit for office because of those comments?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well he is demonstrating yet again that he's more interested in a television grab than a sensibly thought out policy and that's the basis of that claim and I don't retreat from it.
JOURNALIST:
Prime Minister, are you concerned by reports that pregnant woman may be dangering the birth of their children because they're delaying having birth, waiting for the $3,000 government grant?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well if that were happening I would be concerned, whether it's happening it's very hard to tell.
JOURNALIST:
Is South East Asia a breeding ground for terrorists?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well South East Asia is obviously an area where terrorism is very active and I have to say that the recent events in Iraq are exactly what I believed and feared would happen, there's a determined attempt under way in Iraq by the terrorists to stop democracy emerging in that country. And against that background for people to be talking about pulling our forces out is sending the worst possible signal at the worst possible time to the worst possible people. There is an absolutely gigantic struggle going on in Iraq at the present time between the genuine Iraqi people who want a democratic future and a group of terrorists who are determined to stop that occurring and everybody in Australia should be on the side of the aspirations of the Iraqi people and should not be undermining their morale by talking about cutting and running.
Thank you.
[ends]