Māori Party welcomes report on obesity

The Māori Party welcomes the report launched today by New Zealand Medical Association, Tackling Obesity.

“The health, fitness and wellbeing of whanau have been a longstanding priority for the Māori Party. In this year’s Budget we announced an investment of $10m in a programme called Moving the Māori Nation. The funding will support capacity development to fund Māori sporting and cultural activities which nurture healthy living in the broader context of hauora,” says Co-Leader Te Ururoa Flavell.

“A key feature of Whānau Ora is the incentive to develop whānau plans driven by a focus on living healthy lifestyles and becoming self-managing. Within that, health and cultural wellness, nutrition and lifestyle management have often been a priority for whānau, as they look to develop a stronger future for their children in particular.”

“The Māori Party is proud of some of the developments we have pioneered to promote a whole-of community approach to healthy lifestyles. In 2010 we introduced a private members bill to address rising food prices and the impact those have on the ability of those in low-income households to purchase healthy food, by exempting this food from goods and services tax.”

“In 2010, and then again in this year’s Budget, Tariana Turia championed moves to invest in life-saving weight loss operations, enhancing the longevity and the quality of life for New Zealanders who suffer the adverse impacts of obesity.”

“And then earlier this year, Mrs Turia addressed an international symposium advocating for public health solutions to highlight the importance of sugar as a health issue.”

“We support the recommendation from the Health Select Committee to Government that it carry out research on the possibility of regulating the amount of sugar in beverages or imposing a tax on beverages that contain unhealthy amounts of sugar.”

“The New Zealand Medical Association has urged all New Zealanders to recognise obesity as a public health crisis. We are looking carefully at their ten recommendations as we refine our ongoing policy in this area, and greatly appreciate the expertise they have brought to this debate,” says Te Ururoa Flavell.

ENDS

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