As the Abbott government acts to close down the Australian National Preventive Health Agency, a statutory body with responsibility to develop policies to address childhood obesity, consumer psychology is providing new insights into how advertising gets kids to eat. This new research is nowhere to be found in the deliberations of Australian policy makers, neither the politicians committed to small government and 'self-regulation', nor even those more sympathetic to regulation. Policy making remains weighed down…
A hands-off approach to regulation means more child obesity. It's a bit of a schlep up to the platforms at our local train station. I'd guess the ramp is a one-in-eight gradient, steep enough to get some puff going. On an overcast weekday morning, the roar of traffic muted by a stiff south-westerly, I made the ascent with my three kids in tow. We climbed with a steady tramp and soon gained on a young…
