Fit for office

As the old saying goes, ''an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure''.

In recent weeks and months, Kevin Rudd has been running a politically motivated scare campaign with regard to health, claiming that state government budgets will soon be overwhelmed by the rising costs of health care.

But he has barely mentioned that many of the diseases putting pressure on the health system are so-called ''lifestyle diseases'' and that significant pressure could be taken off the health system through a broad community commitment to a healthier lifestyle.

There is a high profile, living, breathing example of all that the Rudd Governments multimillion-dollar advertising campaigns advocate.

As was evident from his completion of an iron man triathlon contest at the age of 52, the leader of the Opposition, Tony Abbott, is in peak physical fitness.

What is surprising, or alarming, is that Nicola Roxon used her role as Health Minister to criticise Tony Abbott's exercise regime.

She apparently cannot understand how Tony Abbott combines a busy work schedule with exercise and therefore concludes he is not sufficiently focused on policy development.

Given that Tony usually starts his regular fitness routine at 5am, it would be interesting to know how much policy work Nicola Roxon or any other Rudd Government Minister is doing at 5am.

To make matters worse, the Rudd Government launched a concerted attack on Tony Abbott's commitment to exercise, with Ministers Gillard, Swan, Tanner and Roxon all questioning the time he spent exercising, suggesting that if he took his job seriously, he wouldn’t have time to exercise - and that if he's exercising his body he isn't exercising his brain.

These are precisely the wrong messages for the Government to send.

In their opportunistic attempts to denigrate Tony Abbott, these ministers have effectively said that if you hold down a senior job you don't have time to exercise.

As the leader of a political party, Tony Abbott is setting a fine example and sending a clear message that we can all increase our level of physical activity.