'Tuckshop arms' comment prompts apology after AMAQ president puts obesity on election agenda

Updated

A remark about women's "tuckshop arms" has forced Australian Medical Association Queensland (AMAQ) president Dr Shaun Rudd to make an apology.

"The school tuckshops are supposed to be healthy places but the reality is they don't," Dr Rudd said yesterday.

"We've all seen tuckshop ladies and there's a reason they've got tuckshop arms."

Dr Rudd made the comments yesterday while outlining the AMAQ's election wish list and naming obesity as the state's biggest health problem.

His offhand remark earned a rebuke from Queensland treasurer Tim Nicholls.

"How rude of the AMA to say that," he said.

"I think Queenslanders enjoy the benefits of a great lifestyle, I think Queenslanders are as fit and active as any other state in Australia."

Dr Rudd has now admitted he wished he could take the comment back.

"I was just trying to get the point across, and I probably just overstepped the mark and I apologise for that," he said.

We've got a lot of fat people but I don't think you should blame the tuckshop ladies because they're taking their job really seriously. Woman responds to Shaun Rudd's comments

"It's a comment I'd like to take back but at the time it was just showing how passionate I was about the problems that we've got, about this emergent problem with overweight and obesity in Queensland.

"It's going to cripple our health system if we don't do something seriously about it."

Dr Rudd said while the comment got in the way of his message, he remained committed to battling the problem of obesity.

He said various efforts had been made to tackle the issue but nothing seemed to be working.

"We really need to start with the kids and one of the problems is what kids get to eat and that's where the tuckshop comment came from," he said.

'It's unfair but we do have a lot of fat people'

In a straw poll of people in the Brisbane CBD, one woman told 612 ABC Brisbane it was unfair to lay the obesity epidemic at the feet of tuckshop ladies.

"At our primary school for example for the last probably six years we've gone all out to have a really healthy menu that the kids actually like and the tuckshop still makes money - so I think it's really unfair to use that analogy," she said.

"I agree that when I'm on public transport we've got a lot of fat people but I don't think you should blame the tuckshop ladies because they're taking their job really seriously."

Another woman said Dr Rudd's apology was warranted, especially as so-called tuckshop arms were a phenomenon more to do with ageing.

"I think it's just about what happens to ladies' underarms when they age, it's not about being obese per se," she said.

But a man in the Brisbane CBD told 612 ABC Brisbane that Queenslanders needed a bit of tough love on the issue of obesity.

"As he said, we are getting fatter - so something's got to be done," he said.

One woman said any comments on obesity needed to target men as well as women.

"Very gender biased," agreed another woman.

'We're quick to take offence'

One man was asked whether he would make the tuckshop arms comment.

"Not in public, no," he said.

"He's getting his point across and he was probably right but it's just a bit offensive. In the end we're all probably a bit light on with taking offence to certain things.

"I wouldn't think anything bad of the guy, I'd feel sorry for the people who take offence to it because they're probably in that realm, that they have got big arms."

Topics: elections, children, women, obesity, doctors-and-medical-professionals, brisbane-4000, qld

First posted