Dr EVERINGHAM (CAPRICORNIA, QUEENSLAND) (Minister for Health) - There is no disputing the fact that milk is one of the major valuable elements in the Australian diet. As I pointed out in my earlier answers, there has been no demonstration that the consumption of milk rose with the operation of the school milk scheme; on the contrary, Australia's average consumption per head of population actually fell slightly during the period of the operation of that scheme. The nutritional standards in Australia are among the highest in the world. We are interested in maintaining and extending those standards, and it is in the light of that intention that we have invited the States to make further submissions regarding areas of particular need for milk as milk. But we have decided, on the advice of experts in the National Health and Medical Research Council and in the School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine in Sydney who have actually sponsored surveys in this area using school medical services and other sources, that it would be more productive to use the money which has been dissipated in this area to upgrade the services available to families that are in fact suffering from malnutrition.

Despite the school milk scheme and despite all the other schemes which have been adopted on an across the board basis, we believe that the proper way to assist families that are nutritionally in trouble is through the Australian Assistance Plan which will discriminate in favour of those families that need help and give them the sort of help they need. Very often school miik has been left to get warm, unplatable and unattractive to the pupils, many of whom reject it. Many teachers have complained about the system being ineffective in getting milk to those students who need it most. One of the main disadvantages of milk in this regard is that very often the pupils who most need protein and calcium in their diet, for which milk is the best vehicle, are unable or unwilling to take milk. This is particularly the case-