This paper examines the childhood obesity epidemic in Australia, analyzing its prevalence, contributing factors, and the policy responses developed to address it. Beginning with an overview of obesity's health and social consequences, the paper explores the underlying assumptions that have shaped public debate — including parental responsibility, socioeconomic status, and the influence of food marketing on children. It surveys national policy interventions such as the Government Action Plan 2003–2007 and the Healthy Weight 2008 framework, evaluating their strengths and limitations. The paper argues that effective policy must move beyond blame-based framing toward evidence-based, multi-level strategies that engage stakeholders across health, education, community, and family settings.
The paper demonstrates effective policy critique by first describing a policy framework and then identifying its structural weaknesses — specifically, the absence of long-term planning, funding mechanisms, and built-in evaluation. This technique of acknowledging progress while pinpointing gaps is a hallmark of evidence-based policy analysis.
The paper opens with epidemiological context and health consequences, then unpacks the assumptions (parental blame, socioeconomic status, advertising) that have shaped policy framing. It surveys media representation before turning to specific national responses, evaluating how well each aligns with the Australian policy development cycle. It closes with lessons learned and a call for more comprehensive, evidence-based strategies. Each section builds on the previous one, making the argument cumulative rather than fragmented.
Childhood obesity is an epidemic that has received considerable attention in the media as well as at the policy level. It is an epidemic that continues to rise and has been estimated to impact over 25% of the youth population in Australia (Hesketh et al. 2005). According to the World Health Organization (WHO 1997), in 2005 there were approximately 20 million children worldwide under the age of five categorized as obese, and the WHO expected that by 2015 this number would increase to 2.3 billion. Obesity is defined on the basis of standard body mass index (BMI) cut points for both gender and age. Specifically, overweight is classified as a BMI of over 25, with obesity classified at 30 or above.
While these numbers are daunting, it is the health and social impacts that are of the greatest concern. Obesity is correlated with an increased risk of high blood pressure, heart disease, stroke, asthma, cancer, skeletal disorders, and sleep apnea (de Silva et al. 2010). This is further compounded by the social stigma associated with obesity in many cultures — a particularly serious concern given that obesity is considered a preventable condition.
The widespread prevalence of this epidemic has made the development of preventative and management strategies challenging. This challenge is compounded by controversy surrounding how the issue should be framed, who should accept responsibility for change, and what should be done at the policy level to intervene. Childhood obesity has gained increasing attention from key stakeholders, the media, and national surveys such as the National Nutrition Survey of 1995.
Since many interventions have focused on the modifiable aspects of obesity — such as lack of physical exercise and the consumption of energy-dense food — this has led to the underlying assumption that obesity is a condition resulting directly from choices made by, and the lifestyle of, the individual (Hesketh et al. 2005). Schools have at times been targeted as the source of unhealthy food consumption in children; however, studies have shown that less than a third of all food intake occurs in the school environment. This finding has shifted focus toward the family household as the key factor in children's food provision, and therefore a significant contributor to the development of obesity, particularly in children between the ages of 5 and 14 years (Margarey 2008). Both media portrayals and intervention strategies have targeted parents as the primary point of intervention, identifying them as responsible for the epidemic. Coveney (2008) describes this common belief that childhood obesity is the direct result of childrearing practices, with parents seen as failing to protect their children from becoming obese or overweight.
There is also evidence to suggest that the prevalence of obesity is not spread equally across populations. It is widely recognized that a relationship exists between obesity and socioeconomic status, and that socioeconomic factors are significant predictors of childhood obesity, primarily in children from birth to age seven (Venn et al. 2007). These factors include wealth or income, living environment, educational attainment, and stress. It is widely assumed — and supported by significant evidence — that individuals with lower socioeconomic status are at increased risk of developing obesity (Coveney 2008). This has tied the issue of childhood obesity back to the role of the parent, as a child's socioeconomic status typically mirrors that of the parent and, according to Coveney (2008), their inability to ensure that their children eat properly balanced diets and receive adequate exercise. This establishes a causal link between socioeconomic status and obesity, while also raising the question of whether the social consequences of obesity are themselves circular in nature.
Another underlying assumption is that the media's portrayal of food is linked to the development of childhood obesity. The manner in which television advertises food is one of the most frequently cited contributors to the epidemic. This is due in part to significant efforts made to market to young children with the goal of developing brand recognition and loyalty (Story and French 2004). Marketers hope that early exposure will result in intrinsic purchasing behavior, and they also believe that young children exercise considerable influence over household purchases — particularly for food — making them an ideal target audience (Story and French 2004).
Research has found that children are exposed to upwards of 360,000 television commercials by the time they graduate from high school, with the most frequent advertising occurring during children's television programs. Moreover, studies on childhood food marketing have shown that unhealthy breakfast cereals are the most frequently advertised food product targeting this age group, while fruits and vegetables receive little to no advertising (Story and French 2004). The pattern of food advertising directed at children is therefore consistent with the unhealthy eating habits being reported in the literature.
The amount of attention given to childhood obesity has dramatically increased over time, and it has emerged as a more significant public health problem than ever before. More than 5,000 articles discussing childhood obesity in Australia were published in newspapers between 2002 and 2005 (Udell and Mehta 2008). These articles, along with other forms of media, examined both the causes and potential solutions to the epidemic. Media attention has played a significant role in raising public awareness and facilitating action to intervene before the epidemic escalates further.
Australian policymakers have attempted to respond to the increasing incidence of childhood obesity. There have been summits and research efforts aimed at both understanding the epidemic and developing intervention strategies. In 1997, the National Health Research Council published Acting on Australia's Weight, a strategic plan to implement prevention efforts targeting obesity (Margarey 2008). Then in 1998, the WHO published a report recognizing the complexity of the obesity issue while pointing to decreased physical activity and poor dietary consumption as the key contributing factors.
In 2002, a summit focused on childhood obesity prevention was held, elevating the issue to a government priority and resulting in the launch of the Prevention of Obesity in Children and Young People Government Action Plan 2003–2007 (GAP). This plan produced initial policy recommendations addressing the social, economic, environmental, and behavioral factors linked to the epidemic. It identified specific actions that governmental programs needed to take, with priority areas including healthy schools, active communities, parental role modeling, increased knowledge and education, and community support (Udell and Mehta 2008).
Despite these policy responses, progress toward decreasing childhood obesity has been hindered by ineffective intervention strategies (Henderson et al. 2009). While the Australian government successfully identified childhood obesity as a problem, appropriate response strategies remained less clear. Policy interventions therefore focused on improving community understanding of the issue, developing insight into the views of affected individuals and families, examining existing approaches and identifying new ideas, and recommending both short-term and long-term courses of action (Hesketh et al. 2005).
One significant national policy response was Healthy Weight 2008 — a national framework designed to address childhood obesity. Its key focus was to support young people and their families within their homes and broader communities, ensuring that underlying environmental and lifestyle contributors to obesity were addressed and replaced with healthier behaviors. The strategy called for a multi-faceted, multi-setting approach that identified what actions were necessary and who was responsible for carrying them out. Collaboration among health sector professionals, governmental sectors, community members, families, educational professionals, and other stakeholders was considered essential to the strategy's success.
The strategy required organizations to utilize evidence-based intervention strategies, align their programs with governmental strategic plans, and build on rather than duplicate existing efforts. Groups seeking to offer intervention programs were encouraged to be creative in their approach to policy, action research, and monitoring. While the plan identified first-stage actions over a four-year period, it did not articulate long-term strategies beyond that initial phase.
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