Calls from Cancer Council to get rid of junk food adverts at new Melbourne train stations
The Cancer Council is demanding junk food advertising be banned from Victoria’s public transport network.
Over the next year, five new Metro Tunnel stations are set to open across Melbourne and the Cancer Council wants them free of advertisements for unhealthy food.
It says more than 60 per cent of food and drink advertisements that currently appear across Victoria’s public transport network are for unhealthy items.
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By continuing you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy.“The more kids see that advertising, the more they’re going to be thinking about those products and want to be ordering those products,” Cancer Council Australia CEO Todd Harper told 7NEWS.
“Removing that influence is a really powerful thing that we can do to protect the health of young people in our community.”
According to data from the Cancer Council, 66 per cent of parents support the campaign to ditch the junk food advertising.
But neither Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan nor Opposition Leader John Pesutto is on board with making the change.
“The Department of Transport has strong guidelines on what can and can’t be advertised on our public transport network,” Allan said.
Meanwhile, Pesutto said there were “many ways to encourage better health and better eating,” but that bans are not something we should be looking at”.
Cities including Canberra and London have already made the change and removed junk food advertising from public transport areas.
In London, it is estimated the change has led shoppers to remove about 4000 kilojoules from their weekly grocery shop.
