Ms Janis Morrissey:

As the Senator said, this tinkering around the edges very much perpetuates the message that individuals need to do more, have better willpower and be stronger. It blames individuals for being the products of their environment. Children are growing up with this message and are being exposed to a flood of marketing as well. They are getting one message that they are not doing enough, yet they are being consistently exposed to highly well resourced marketing for junk food and other harmful products. There is a huge mismatch here and we are doing our young people a disservice by exposing them to this messaging in schools and in the wider community. We have a duty of care for young people. We need to protect them from these harmful messages. It is not about them as individuals. Yes, education is important but the imbalance of the corporate messaging around individualism needs to be addressed. Messaging like people just need a bit more information or parent need to be better parents, is wholly inappropriate and really ignores the weight of evidence on the impact of corporate tactics.