http://www.smh.com.au/national/health/food-rating-website-fiona-nashs-chief-of-staff-married-to-lobbyist-for-junk-food-industry-20140211-32fs9.html#ixzz2t01k7zxI

A senior government staffer who demanded a new healthy food rating website be taken down is married to the head of a lobbying outfit that works for the junk food industry, it has been revealed.

In senate question time on Tuesday, Assistant Health Minister Fiona Nash admitted that both she and her chief-of-staff, Alastair Furnival, had personally intervened to insist health department staff pull down the new “health star rating” site on the day it was launched.

Mr Furnival was previously a chairman of Australian Public Affairs, which is listed on the lobbyists' register as representing the Australian Beverages Council and Mondelez Australia, which owns the Kraft peanut butter, Cadbury and Oreo brands, among others.

In question time, Ms Nash also admitted Mr Furnival was married to the company's sole director and secretary, Tracey Cain.

Labor health spokeswoman Catherine King has demanded an explanation for the actions of Ms Nash and Mr Furnival.

“The government has a responsibility to act in the best interests of all Australians,” she said. “It is for Senator Nash to explain how her actions and those of her office demonstrate this.”

Public health and consumer groups are furious that the site has been taken offline after two years in development, and have accused the government of bowing to the interests of the junk food industry.

The site, which set up a system that enabled food manufacturers to label their products with easy-to-understand nutritional information, was launched about midday on Wednesday last week, only to be pulled by 8pm that night.
On Friday, Ms Nash did not respond to questions from Fairfax Media about whether she or Mr Furnival had intervened to have the site removed.

A departmental spokeswoman had previously told Fairfax Media the site was just a “draft” that had been published due to an “inadvertent error”.

On Tuesday, Ms Nash told Parliament that Mr Furnival had approached departmental staff about the website on her direction.

She said she and Mr Furnival had complied with the ministerial code of conduct and a question asked by Labor Senator Penny Wong about Mr Furnival's relationship with the company was “unworthy”.

“The health star rating system is not yet in place – it would have been extremely confusing for consumers had that website remained in place,” she said. “There is no connection whatsoever between my chief of staff and the company, Australian Public Affairs. My chief of staff has no connection with the food industry and is simply doing his job."
Both the Public Health Association of Australia and consumer group CHOICE have condemned the decision to take the website down.

Public Health Association head Michael Moore said it was "inconceivable" that the website was only a draft.
"I looked at it very carefully, and there was nothing that struck me about it as being a draft," he said. "It just doesn't make sense."

He said the health star rating system had been developed in conjunction with the food industry, which had rejected an earlier push for a system that used traffic lights as symbols.
When it became clear the Coalition would likely gain power, representatives from the Australian Food and Grocery Council backed away from the star ratings.
“It's a voluntary system, so what is the Food and Grocery Council afraid of?” Mr Moore asked on Friday.

The Food and Grocery Council has maintained that it is only pushing for a cost-benefit analysis to examine the effects of the system on industry, something supported by Ms Nash.
She told Parliament the process had not yet concluded.
“There was also a cost-benefit analysis that was agreed to unanimously by the members of the [food minister's] forum last December … to ensure that we would have the appropriate rigour in terms of the impact to industry and, indeed, the full cost-benefit analysis,” she said.

A statement from Ms Nash's office said Mr Furnival had met all the requirements of employment and of the ministerial staff code of conduct.

"He has no role whatsoever in his wife's business," the statement read.

Not the only instance, I believe....

Proposing to take back child-care workers wage boost and giving it to the centres to train up staff comes to mind.

$200 vouchers for marriage counseling when the proposers wife has a business in that area is another.

Sounds like corruption in Liberal circles to me!

Junk food is probably the biggest cause of deaths now not many people smoke anymore.

Once again, the Liberal party fail at probity.

One wonders what the world is coming too when someone needs a STAR system to tell them if the food is healthy or not??????

what do they teach them in school these days..

ALL JUNK FOOD IS UNHEALTHY..putting a bit of lettuce in it doesnt make it healthy..


this is so petty.....junk food is cheaper than any other... how about a committee into organic food and why its so much dearer to produce.?..

Here come the Lieberal apologist squad {spew}

Bam wrote on Feb 11^th, 2014 at 8:35pm:

Once again, the Liberal party fail at probity.

and being against a Royal into the criminal activities  of the CFMEU isnt a fail???


::) ::)

It is when it is just union bashing, as it is. The construction companies are just as corrupt most likely and safety suffers when star chambers like the AABC are set up—companies know they can take shortcuts on safety with impunity.

Assistant Health Minister Fiona Nash admits chief of staff holds shares in lobby group (ABC Online)

Quote:

Alastair Furnival, the chief of staff of Assistant Health Minister Fiona Nash, intervened to shut down a website late last week. The website contained detailed information on Australia's new labelling policy for food and beverages, which is to help consumers make informed nutritional choices – with guidelines on saturated fat, total sugar, sodium, fibre, protein and fruit and vegetable content. The labelling policy has been applauded by Choice, the Heart Foundation and various health organisations, and the site had been approved by the Australia and New Zealand Food Regulation Ministerial Council (the forum of state, federal and New Zealand ministers that has oversight of food regulation). The voluntary health-labelling system has been resisted by several major food brands, including Cadbury and Kraft and other soft drink and confectionery producers.  Ministerial staffer Alastair Furnival is, despite earlier denials, a shareholder of Australian Public Affairs (APA) – a lobbying firm that represents major food brands, including Cadbury and Kraft. Investigations by Guardian Australia show that as well as chairing APA until September, Furnival remains a director of one of three linked companies that form the APA partnership. Which is owned by his wife. The assistant health minister, Fiona Nash, says her chief of staff has “no conflict of interest.” The site was simply not ready. Meanwhile Kathy Dennis, the Health Department bureaucrat who'd been leading the development of the food labelling policy – two and a half years in the making – has been stripped of this task. Does that sound healthy? You decide

http://www.themonthly.com.au/politicoz

St George of the Garden wrote on Feb 12^th, 2014 at 6:39am:

Here come the Lieberal apologist squad {spew}

And so says George of The Jungle the biggest and dumbest tool on here.... ;D

viewpoint wrote on Feb 13^th, 2014 at 12:26pm:

St George of the Garden wrote on Feb 12th, 2014 at 6:39am: Here come the Lieberal apologist squad {spew} And so says George of The Jungle the biggest and dumbest tool on here.... ;D

Well, he was correct... here you are posting garbage as proof of that.