Draft National Obesity Prevention Strategy

Overview

Obesity is a complex condition affecting our whole community. A range of social, environmental, and economic factors contribute to obesity and impact a person’s ability to maintain a healthy weight. If the current trend continues, more than 18 million Australians (two-thirds of our projected population) will be overweight or obese by 2030. Addressing overweight and obesity in Australia requires a multi-faceted, community wide approach delivered through a range of initiatives, sectors, and organisations.

To address this significant public health challenge, the Australian and state and territory governments have agreed to develop a national obesity strategy (Strategy). The Strategy will enable a more collaborative and comprehensive approach to addressing obesity nationally. It will also provide a way to identify actions and priorities for all levels of government as well as provide a focus for multisectoral partnerships and collaboration.

A national obesity strategy Working Group (Working Group) consisting of the Australian Government and all State and Territory governments was formed to oversee the development of a Strategy.

Between November 2019 and February 2020, feedback was requested on a proposed framework and ideas to be included in a Strategy. More than 2,000 individuals and organisations engaged in the national consultation. You can access the now closed consultation and associated documents, including the Consultation Report, here and at the bottom of this page.

Feedback received from the national consultation has been used to inform the development of a draft Strategy. The Working Group is now inviting the Australian community to take part in a national consultation on the draft Strategy. The draft Strategy can be found at the bottom of this page. 

You will note that the draft Strategy includes examples of actions under each sub-strategy, these will be further refined and prioritised. The survey does not include specific questions on these example actions, however if you wish to provide comments about the actions, please include detail in the section relating to the relevant Ambition.

Please submit your response through the Online Survey below. Please provide the appropriate source of evidence for your response where possible. Late submissions or requests for extension will not be accepted.

About the survey

The survey is in 7 parts, which includes:

• Section 1. Privacy information (2 questions)
• Section 2. Introduction (5 questions)
• Section 3. Overarching concepts (10 questions)
• Section 4. Ambition 1 - All Australians live, learn, work, and play in supportive and healthy environments (2 questions)
• Section 5. Ambition 2 - All Australians are empowered and skilled to stay as healthy as they can be (2 questions)
• Section 6. Ambition 3 - All Australians have access to early intervention and primary health care (3 questions)
• Section 7. Making it happen (2 questions)

If you wish, you can complete the survey in stages by using the ‘save and return’ feature. At the bottom of each survey page, you can select the 'Save and come back later...' button. You will then be asked to provide an email address. A unique link will be emailed to you that will allow you to return where you left off. Email addresses entered for this purpose are not saved with your responses to the survey.

You can also choose the order in which you complete the sections of the survey. You will be returned to the contents page after you have completed the answers to each section. You will need to answer 'required' questions before you can submit your response. 

How will responses be used?

Findings from the survey will be collated and included in a report to inform the final strategy.

What happens next

Findings from the survey will be collated and included in a report to inform the final strategy. The final strategy is expected to be considered by Health Ministers in 2022.