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Adjournment Speech

Date:
13th May

Subject:
Krispy Kreme Marketing Campaign

"I wish to express concern about marketing of junk food in Sydney. Krispy Kreme Doughnuts, which is about to open a shop at Wynyard, has been distributing free doughnuts around the city. A Krispy Kreme representative calls an office manager to get permission to give away doughnuts. When permission is obtained they are delivered and then distributed by employees. The doughnuts are accompanied by a fax order form, which encourages employees to order even more doughnuts. The original glazed doughnut weighs 52 grams and has 12 grams of fat. Of its 200 calories, 110 are derived from fat. The New York cheesecake doughnut has 330 calories, of which 170 are derived from fat. The total fat content is 19 grams, which is 30 per cent of the daily requirement. Those figures are provided by the company.

Krispy Kreme Doughnuts is based in Winston-Salem, the home of the R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, and I imagine that it is a branch of R. J.R. Nabisco, which is the food branch of the parent company. Employees are being recruited to market the doughnuts. Arguably employers have a duty of care to their employees, and presumably the employees would not be allowed to distribute cigarettes. One wonders whether, in view the obesity epidemic, they should be allowed to distribute fatty foods. Should the Minister for Health make a public statement about the dangers of consuming excessive levels of fats and sugar? Surely that has been done. Should fatty foods carry health warnings? Should a levy be imposed on companies selling high-fat foods to compensate for the health costs of obesity? Should there be restrictions on marketing, like those that should apply to tobacco? This is not simply a question of deciding whether products are legal or illegal; they have to be seen in the context of whether they are good for society as a whole given public health concerns. Marketers must accept some responsibility for the product they sell."