Mr HAASE (5:30 PM) —I rise this evening to bring the attention of the House to a number of things, and a couple of them are personal. Last evening, I was fortunate enough to be invited to attend the inaugural dinner of the Parliamentary Diabetes Support Group. One may ask: why is Haase a member of this group? It was due primarily to the fact that Mr Ernie Bridge, a member of Unity of the First People of Australia, had introduced to me some time ago a diabetes management and care program that he introduced to the Noonkanbah community in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. The basis of this diabetes management and care program relies on volunteers, and Mr Bridge had gained the interest of a number of reputable people from Western Australia who had time on their hands and the ability to give a message and tell people of some of the pitfalls of lifestyle and dietary habits and how they might result in an individual falling victim to especially diabetes type 2.

At the dinner I attended last evening, one of the guest speakers was Professor Paul Zimmet. Professor Zimmet has had a long association with diabetes and the study thereof and brought to us a number of facts in relation to diabetes, especially diabetes type 2, in Australia and across the world. It is certainly looming as a disease—a condition—of almost epidemic proportions across the world. The major question is: why? The jury is still out with regard specifics, but at this stage it looks as though it is a condition brought on by our lack of exercise as a race and our consumption of foods with a very high sugar content.

It is therefore appropriate that I give due credit to the work of Mr Ernie Bridge in Noonkanbah. Due to the good results that he has had there in changing lifestyle and eating habits, the program has been further introduced by him in the Jigalong community in the Pilbara of Western Australia, working once again with volunteers who come to the community, live in the community and talk to the population about what they might do on a personal and daily basis to lessen the risk of them falling victim to diabetes type 2.

One of the major problems with community populations, because many of them are extremely remote, is the absence of a large range of fresh fruit and vegetables. So the first step that has been encouraged in these communities is to reduce the amount of tinned and frozen food and to encourage the inclusion of fresh vegetables on the supermarket shelves. Having done that, one has to encourage the community to purchase, prepare and consume these vegetables, and that is no small task. But with a dedicated group giving up their time and pointing out the pitfalls and pointing out the manner in which these vegetables can be prepared et cetera, some inroads are being made.

Exercise groups are being put together in communities and in some for the first time senior people are involving themselves in regular exercise. I have a large collection of correspondence from people who have been through the community noticing the difference and talking about the reduction in the number of full sugar soft drinks on the shelves of the community stores and their replacement with diet products. I think that is such an important move in the right direction. It was not unusual to have seen in the past in these communities somebody with a two-litre bottle of full sugar soft drink, and they may have consumed two of those in a day on a regular basis. Just turning around that consumption habit is such a great achievement, and all credit must go to Ernie Bridge and his team from Unity of the First People of Australia diabetes management program. (Time expired)