'Fat' MP Ewen Jones dismisses food star rating system amid government website removal controversy

Updated

A Government MP who describes himself as fat says the Coalition should discontinue any plans to restore a food star ratings website it withdrew in controversial circumstances.

Liberal National Queensland MP Ewen Jones has told the ABC that as a fat man, he knows the star ratings system will not prevent overweight and obese people reaching for calorie-laden comfort food.

The member for the Townsville-based seat of Herbert said the Government had to get out of people's lives.

"I carry weight, I am actually fat. It's not the Government that makes me fat, I make me fat," Mr Jones told the ABC.

"I don't need a government to come and tell me that what I'm eating is wrong."

South Australian MP Andrew Southcott told the party room he supports the Government rolling out a ratings scheme as one of many ways to combat obesity.

But Mr Jones disagreed, and said he told his colleagues a star rating system would not stop him devouring chocolate ice-cream.

"When I'm opening up a tub of ice-cream, I'm not looking at the rating, I'm not opening it because it's low-calorie, low-fat or because it's good for me," Mr Jones said.

I started my own church – the Church of the Fatter Day Saints. We have communion but it's buffet style. Ewen Jones

"I'm opening it up because it's chock-a-block full of chocolate."

He listed a repertoire of "fat jokes" he said he regularly told people to poke fun at himself.

Sources confirmed he shared those with Prime Minister Tony Abbott and the rest of his Government colleagues when he spoke against star ratings in the party room yesterday.

"I've lost so much weight I can fit into things I haven't been able to in ages, like elevators and taxis," Mr Jones said.

"I started my own church – the Church of the Fatter Day Saints. We have communion, but it's buffet style."

The Government recently pulled a website about a star rating system for food products a day after it went live.

Alastair Furnival, the most senior adviser to Assistant Health Minister Fiona Nash, later resigned due to conflict of interest allegations surrounding his links to the food industry.

The Government's reasoning for withdrawing the website was that it wants to carry out further cost-benefit analysis.

But when asked what the Government's policy on the issue was, Mr Jones said there was none.

"The Government's policy is to maximise the health dollar throughout the whole health portfolio," he said.

"There is no actual policy. You won't find a written policy on whether we do this health food rating or not."

Asked how he believed the Government should best combat obesity and its huge costs to the taxpayers, Mr Jones said education was the key.

"I think it's through education and education in school, through healthy examples in schools, but not down to tuckshops," he said.

Topics: health, obesity, food-and-beverage, food-and-cooking, government-and-politics, federal-government, australia, qld, townsville-4810

First posted