Health Coalition Aotearoa

Prof Sharon Friel, of The Australian National University, spoke at our forum in September about how to beat the might of harmful industries when the political environment favours industry over health: “This is when civil society has to be loud, loud, loud. But you can’t be a single person, because you get completely ostracised. You can’t be a single organisation, because you’ll get your funding stopped. You must be part of a coalition. Historical analysis tells us that it’s when webs of groups are constantly speaking about these issues, raising collective consciousness, building coalitions, and holding both companies and governments to account." If you're an individual or organisation concerned about health inequities in Aotearoa, come and be loud with our coalition: https://lnkd.in/gFTUKX-B

Health Coalition Aotearoa (HCA) fully supports the new report from the Helen Clark Foundation, "Junk Food and Poor Policy". We can create healthy environments that support people to live well and have less risk of developing non-communicable diseases such as diabetes, heart disease and strokes. But it will take bold political decisions that priortise health firmly ahead of companies that profit from food and drinks with zero nutritional value. "Politicians have been too timid and have been put off by the potential pushback from industry," HCA co-chair Professor Boyd Swinburn says. "If they're going to do something positive about food and childhood obesity in this country, unfortunately they are going to have to take on the food industry and be tough about it."

Our new report, Junk Food and Poor Policy? How weak rules undermine health and economic growth in New Zealand and how to fix it, looks at how our government can take effective action to improve nutrition and health outcomes for New Zealanders. For New Zealanders to be healthy, they need to live in a healthy environment and be able to access nutritious food. If politicians fail to accept this, the same failed policies of the past will continue. The prevailing governmental approach has been largely based on promoting personal responsibility – namely, that people can and must take responsibility for their health and the choices they make. But the food system is stacked against individuals – people cannot easily change if they live in an environment that makes that change difficult or impossible. It is no longer excusable to pursue this failed approach. Aotearoa New Zealand needs transformative change to shift the obesity conversation from individuals’ choices to one that focuses on our commercial food environment and the social determinants of poor nutrition.

"Empowering and supporting communities is at the heart of any successful health service where local people can seek help from a wide range of service providers who understand their needs, have access to their records and can make a genuine connection with them," writes HCA board member Dr Dr. David Galler in The Spinoff. 

MORE THAN ONE IN FOUR KIWI CHILDREN GOING WITHOUT FOOD The annual NZ Health Survey data for 2023-2024 showed that the proportion of children from homes where food ran out sometimes or often had increased by nearly six percentage points in just one year, from 21.3 per cent to 27 per cent. Alarmingly over half of Pacific children (54.8 per cent) and over a third of Māori children (34.3 per cent) were from homes where they were not getting the food they needed sometimes or often. HCA food policy expert advisory group member and registered dietitian Mafi Funaki-Tahifote said the data reflected what she was seeing in her work in Auckland, particularly in the South Auckland community. “Households are spending a lot more on food, not only due to price increases, but also from the impacts of the deeper forces of escalating fixed costs of housing and power bills, to name a few, which means left-over money available to spend on food is diminished.” She said poor access to healthy food had a significant impact on children’s health and wellbeing, which is why the data was devastating news. “It impacts on their growth, on their health such as on their immunity, on their educational ability and how well they do at school. Nutritionally those kids are not able to function optimally in terms of concentration, their moods, studies, play and sports.” 👉 READ HCA's full statement on the survey data: https://lnkd.in/gH7ak4Dd

As a Te Tiriti-led organisation, Health Coalition Aotearoa (HCA) stands with Māori in opposition to the Treaty Principles Bill as it enters the Select Committee Process. It is a travesty that this Bill was tabled in Parliament as we know this will cause Māori even more harm.   Parliament opened the Bill to public submissions yesterday as part of this process and HCA will be taking the opportunity to formally voice our opposition. We encourage others to do the same by going to this page. https://lnkd.in/gqM7JJ_8   As advocates for health equity and reducing the impact of harmful products including alcohol, tobacco, vaping and unhealthy food on the health of New Zealanders, we know this Bill, if passed, would be disastrous.   By wiping out the unique position of Māori as the first nations people of Aotearoa, the proposed Bill would nullify the existing Te Tiriti principles that give the best framework to reduce the disproportionate health harms for Māori.    We salute all those who led and took part in yesterday’s hīkoi to Parliament. It was an incredible, inspiring and uplifting event for Māori and all those who stand united to oppose the Treaty Principles Bill. As we head into the next stage of this Bill, we will hold on to the   We acknowledge the energy, organisation, creativity and leadership needed to bring this history-making statement to our country’s decision-makers.

It's time for Ministers on both sides of the Tasman to mandate Health Star Ratings (HSR) as the food industry has failed to meet yet another target for voluntary uptake of the labelling system. Health Coalition Aotearoa (HCA), alongside 20 public health groups on both sides of the Tasman, is calling on our Food Minister Andrew Hoggard and his Food Safety Australia and New Zealand (FSANZ) counterparts for a clear commitment and plan to mandate HSR for all packaged food products as they meet today. A target to have HSR on 60 per cent of all packaged products by yesterday – November 14, 2024 – has almost certainly not been met, with an April survey of 2023 data by the University of Auckland finding just 30 per cent of products carried the label in New Zealand. An Australian audit of products from 2024 revealed just 36 per cent had an HSR in Australia. “Given this, and the poor previous adoption in New Zealand, it is highly unlikely uptake has increased by the needed 30 per cent to meet yesterday’s 60 per cent target,” Sally Mackay co-chair of HCA’s food policy expert advisory group and University of Auckland researcher said. It is also extremely unlikely that the next and final target for 70 per cent of products having a HSR by November 14 next year will be achieved, further confirming the need to make the HSR mandatory. “An efficient and strategic process must be put in place now to ensure regulation making HSR mandatory can be introduced as soon as the 2025 target is not met,” Dr Mackay said.    Read our full release here: https://lnkd.in/gGs-pX42

"The tobacco industry is really the first instance of when we saw influencer marketing. This is something they did back in the 1920s. They got models to smoke their cigarettes as a targeted part of their strategy to reach into a female market. And so we're just seeing the same thing all over again.” Lucy Hardie, University of Auckland researcher and HCA spokesperson. Our youth smoking rates are very low, thanks to decades of advocacy and evidence-based tobacco policies including plain packaging, warning labels, bans on advertising, bans on smoking indoors, and tobacco tax increases. BUT tobacco companies have not given up on getting our young people smoking again. There’s a renewed global effort to glamourise smoking again via celebrities and so-called "cigfluencers" as reported in this BBC story: https://lnkd.in/g-fVZfpJ Lucy told Daniel Faitaua on TVNZ's Breakfast last week the development shows we cannot rest on our laurels when it comes to smoking rates. We need to keep fighting for proven and innovative policies that will keep our youth smokefree including: 👉 Reducing the number of retailers 👉 Creating a Smokefree Generation byban sales to people born after 2009 👉 Denicotisation – a gradual reduction in nicotine in cigarettes to reduce their ability to hook users AND we must hold social media platforms to account when they fail to act on breaches of their own standards.

👇 Two amazing job opportunities open at HCA member organisation Healthy Families South Auckland. These are roles to help empower communities to shape their own wellbeing while collaborating with key partners — local government, Māori and Pasifika leaders, and community organisations — to ensure equitable health outcomes for South Auckland. You’ll work in partnership with the Ministry of Health and Healthy Families NZ to create lasting impact across Tāmaki Makaurau. Lead Systems Innovator: https://lnkd.in/gjJn8p69. and Systems Innovator: https://lnkd.in/gShQciDy You can read about some of the work Healthy Families South Auckland is doing with Health Coalition Aotearoa here: https://lnkd.in/gdKS-bZq

Most people who smoke want to quit – but it’s really hard due to the extremely addictive quality of nicotine. When tobacco products are less available, people who are addicted to smoking are more likely to quit. People who break the law and sell individual cigarettes are undermining one of the few measures we have that restrict the availability of cigarettes. We need better enforcement of the law to stop these sales. https://lnkd.in/gbK5beeH