Rich pickings for the slender

But it's hard enough to survive on welfare without food being 50 per cent more expensive as it often is in remote communities, fresh food in particular.

Some of the diet-related conditions that are plaguing our community are driven by poverty, and not necessarily bad behaviour or even lack of education. When you are poor in an affluent society you want to maximise kilojoules per dollar. People want to feel full. And simply, the best kilojoules per dollar are fat, oil, sugar and flour: unchecked, these are the greatest contributors to our obesity problem.

We have some ideas about how to best use the prevention dollar, given that obesity (as the main cause of some of the nation's most serious and expensive health problems) is now a welcome national health priority.

Looking into food availability and source, looking to supplement the diet of remote and regional communities, or even just the children of these communities at schools, is one option. In a partnership with schools, childcare centres and local councils, a plan that reduces the cost of fresh food and boosts its availability in the most disadvantaged areas might be one option worth exploring. We certainly welcome the opportunity to look at obesity as a problem that goes beyond the individual and penetrates the most serious inequities in our society.