Addressing the social and economic factors influencing overweight is a big ask. In fact it is pie in the sky [no pun intended]. Even if there is to be some personal suffering, it would be much better to do something about getting Johnny’s weight down now to prevent him from spending the next 60 years or so feeling very unhappy about being over-weight.

Can you explain what Kate Carnell's comment (former Liberal Chief Minister of the ACT) has to do with Labor policy?

Better to be teased for being fat as a kid than to live with chronic illness in later life.

Peer group ridicule is a strong incentive for overweight kids to trim down.
Another method may be to intercept the grossly overweight parents lurching into Mc.Donald's with their greedy kids in tow, and hand them pamphlets about healthy eating.
On second thoughts, those parents would probably just use these to wipe their noses then drop them on the ground.

isn't it time we started requiring licenses to procreate? we can test for bad genes, and we can test for fat addiction, and we can test for stupidity.

australia's next generation deserves competent healthy parents.

We follow America in everything, including markers of poverty. The lower your income the fatter you are. I am too lazy to find the Australian studies that show increased family income is associated with healthier weight.

When we compare Australians now to the pictures of Max Duplains Australians of the 1930s and 1940s we are all fat now. Most of us eat much more processed food than people did 50 years ago. Cadbury's chocolate, Mars bars, muffins, should not be part of anybody's daily diet. We eat oven bake chips made in belgium and coated in who-knows-what fats. We also eat larger servings than previous generations and we expend much less energy than previous generations. [That said we don't want to go back to good old days of using men to unload trains and ships hessian sack by hessian sack hefted on the back. Remember labourers used to be crippled by their early 40s.]

If we are serious about reducing obesity and over weight
- ban advertising of snack food on TV, the advertising is so ubiquitious that every one thinks they can be consumed daily
- ban advertising of soft drinks. Have you noticed its cheaper to by soft drink than cordial now
- introduce complusory school lunches to ensure kids get proper food and learn appropriate serving sizes
- lose this climate of fear that compels parents to drive their kids to school and makes adults frightened of catching public transport after dark

Maybe we could consider a eugenic approach.

http://www.newscientist.com/channel/health/mg19426005.800-gene-makes-some-people-fatter.html

We could test foetuses and abort any baby that carried "fat genes."

DEMOS may be onto something