The content in vending machines is clearly weighted toward unhealthy foods. It is clear that Health Officials see no other way to address this imbalance other than to intervene by means of legislation. I find it difficult to argue with this logic given the omnipresence of obesity, a societal problem which we all have to face one way or another. In short, such intervention is called social responsibility.
-Andrew Dowie
Outrageous ! I grab a chocolate from the vending machine once every couple of weeks or so, I'm slim and eat very healthily. You cannot control what people are going to eat & if they want a vending machine breakfast, lunch & dinner then thats up to them...I don't have a problem with the vending machine because I use it sensibly.
- Catherine Robinson
Leave us alone! Its about time these "do-gooders" kept their noses out of our business.I am sick and tired of being treated like a child and being told what is good for me and what I can and cannot do or enjoy. This country has accepted these "claytons police" to invade our lives so that none of us has to take resonsibility for our own actions. Give me back my responsibility for my own life.
- M Cole
Wait a minute! Can someone tell me what the healthy alternative that they can exchange are? Someone said cheese and crackers! Have you any idea of the fat content of cheese and crackers? Muesli bars - have you seen the sugar content in them? Making the statement is easy but what are they truely suggesting?
- Jean
Couldn't agree with you more Dave Clout! Why don't they stop worrying about what we put in our mouths and let us live our lives!! Here's an idea for the money that they spend on those useless campaigns, perhaps that money would be better spent on fighting crime and eliminating all the gang warfare so we all feel safe walking down the street.
- Janine Boulter
So the government thinks it needs to think for us when it comes to eating snack food? I think the government should think about tackling health issues that they can actually directly control. Buying snack food is a personal choice that has personal consequences. If the government persists with this sort of nanny-state thinking then there will be consequences too - they'll be gone next election
- Joshua Teal
What next - supposed to be a democratic society! they will be dictating what we can do/when and how as well - get stuffed and worry about more important things. Surely Adults can decide for themselves what they should/shouldn't be eating.
- Rachel
The soft drink can vending machines at my place of tertiary education (MIT) have been replaced with the 600ml bottle versions. Nowhere on campus can you obtain smaller cheaper cold drinks. Is this for revenue gathering and to aclimitise people to consuming larger quantities of soft drink? I suspect both. The idea of downing half the daily drink and energy requirement in sugary syrup churns my stomach.
- Annette
Provide healthy alternatives: yes. Restrict contents of workplace vending machines: no. Workplaces predominantly employ adults (i.e., grown men and women) who are fully capable of making their own choices about nutrition and other matters that are none of the Government's business.
- R Taylor
While I am glad we are being encouraged to eat healthy I tend to think that we are starting to get dictated to and choices are being taken away from people. It is personal choice on what we eat. Much like public transport really.
- Annette
How bizarre that the Ministry would think of to making employers responsible for what people eat at work. Are they are saying that, based on the Health and Safety Act, food is a hazard - so how does the employer deal with an employee bringing a chocolate bar (a hazard) to work?
- Rob L
The only healthy-ish thing in our work vending machines is Cookie Time's one square meal bars, and they've only been there a few months. Yes, we're adults and should be capable of healthy choices, but it's hard to choose healthily when there are no healthy options!
- Rebecca
What next? Is there anything else left for this pathetic government to ban? I propose that this Labour Government be banned for once and for all - it cannot come soon enough.
- Steve King
Please!! People can say what you should or shouldnt be eating but as far as any actual enforcement on this goes..well now that would be joke!! tiz the peoples choice regardless!!!
- Wendy
Next the local fish & chip shop, then the pizza and burger franchises... All this stress has just provoked me to go and get a Moro bar to calm down!
- Colin Stewart
Providing healthy alternatives would be a good start - it would be nice to see a prominent big business or two show leadership in this area. How about starting with an award offered for healthy workplace environments (and schools) instead?
- Electra
Bring on the next elections so we can get rid of this PC correct Labour government. We are the most over regulated country in the world. Who votes these idiots in? Every individual is responsible for their own health, not some PC correct bureaucrat.
- Dave Clout
Most children choose unhealthy food from vending machines despite being educated by their parents, and so the government legislates to rapturous applause of the population that the legislation doesn't affect. Most adults choose unhealthy food from vending machines despite a lifetime of being educated about the benefits of healthy food, and so the government proposes legislation to widespread condemnation of the population it affects. If we, the adult population, really are making an informed choice then why base the rules on intention rather than the actual decisions made or will that just show the hypocrisy of the previous legislation?
- Michael J
Big Brother is watching...whatever happened to freedom of choice?
-Souji
There's a less obvious dimension, here. Why should the government, any government, concern itself with interfering in people's choices? Because the government / people / taxes pay the consequential price through an over-taxed health service. Would it be better to exclude self-inflicted diseases from free health care, like self-chosen, smoking-induced cancer, self-chosen over-eating-induced obesity & T2 diabetes, etc? What a can of worms that would be!
- Perry
I think it is ridiculous to try to enforce a ban on vending machines in the workplace. We are adults and are fully capable of making a decision and understanding the consequences to our actions. The government tries to dictate to us enough about what we should and should not do. Stay out of our personal lives and get onto some real issues ... how about violent youth crimes to start with?
- Sharyn
What's next? Banning Coffee/Milo and Sugar during morning tea? How about banning the butter on scones?
- David Hill
Fair enough targetting school tuck shops - but vending machines at work places? This is a step too far. Surely adults can be given the responsibility for what they put in their mouths. Changing habits at a young age is the real imperitive. You can't teach an old dog new tricks.
- Joe Baker
I think the idea of banning workplace vending machines is going way too far into the nanny state zone. By all means, add some healthier choices into the vending machines along with the usual stuff. By all means, educate the population about nutrition and obesity. But government regulation on what adults can and cannot eat? Way too far. What happened to personal responsibility? And why won't the government focus on the important issues like crime, education and health care, rather than constantly poking its collective nose into people's private lives?
- Caroline
Oh for goodness sake! People need to take responsibility for themselves. Forcing employers to take on this type of personal responsibility for their employees is ridiculous, time consuming and no doubt will be an added cost for the employer. This is just another aspect that could discourage a successful business person from making the move to expand and employ others. Many of us would love to eat junk food all day but we have developed the self-control not to do so. A skill which can be applied in other aspects of life as well. If we really want to have health improving options in the work place - they should be educational and supportive of behaviour change - not these type of "nanny state" measures.
- Dari
What a bunch of moaners the people below seem to be... Firstly, stop trying to make it a political issue. It is not. It is stated that "Health Officials" are looking at this, and it is very likely that the same "Health Officials" would be looking at the same issue no matter who was in power in New Zealand. These "Health Officials" are just Joe Bloggs like all of us, who have a job that just happens to be in the civil sector. Pull your heads out of the sand you moaners and start looking at the facts. While I do agree with many that say that we are adults and we should have the right to choose what we eat... I am pleased to identify that we generally do. The fact that the Health Officials are looking at this simply highlights the issue as something for discussion and review. Good on them. I feel that the machines have their place, however healthy options should also be offered by responsible employers and information for us to make an informed choice should be freely available.... Let's get out of politics and look at the issue, which is one of obesity in New Zealand and what our options are to fight this to reduce the stress on our health system.
- Steve
Oh for goodness sake! People need to take responsibility for themselves. Forcing employers to take on this type of personal responsibility for their employees is ridiculous, time consuming and no doubt will be an added cost for the employer. This is just another aspect that could discourage a successful business person from making the move to expand and employ others. Many of us would love to eat junk food all day but we have developed the self-control not to do so. A skill which can be applied in other aspects of life as well. If we really want to have health improving options in the work place - they should be educational and supportive of behaviour change - not these type of "nanny state" measures.
- Dari
What Next!!! This meddling govt needs to concentrate on real issues like crime and reducing taxes! I am sick of their nonsense!
- Simon
This is going too far. It is one thing to restrict the availability of "junk food" at schools, but now to suggest legislating to tell adults what they can and cannot eat? This will be the end of the Labour government. As for the comments "ban junk food outright" - do we ban thinking as well? People who eat poorly and become unhealthy or obese need to change their thinking for themselves. We do not require legislation to tell us what, when or how to eat.
- Hayley
We are adults not children to be told by the goverment what we can eat and not eat. I think the goverment should butt out of peoples personal lives and choices and start putting thier mouths and money in a more worthwhile projects like fixing the healthcare system, our roads and whatever else they do to keep thier jobs....just stay out of our personal lives.
- Renee
It's not only our coinage that has been debased. It is also our constitutional democracy. A likely consequence of legislation attempting to make employers responsible for obesity in the workplace will be a reluctance or even unwillingness to hire obese people. If the government has nothing better to do than interfere with the contents of food vending machines, it's time for Parliament to take a long, long recess. Idle hands make mischief.
- A Kyriak
They should be banned, no question about it. Those food troughs are a sitting duck for tired, stressed and hungry workers who have immediate access to high fat unhealthy foods. Thank goodness my workplace does the decent thing and provides us with fruit most mornings...and strangely enough, there are few obese people who work there. New Zealand needs to wake up and realise this obesity issue will not go away on its own. We either need to ban junk food outright, or put a sales tax on those foods the same way we did with smoking and perhaps one day we will see slim, energetic and healthy people like we once did in the past.
- Amanda Haines
More nanny, 'school master knows best', government interference in our lives. Next they will ban breathing because it is 100% fatal.
- John
"We're ADULTS, not little kids ..." The Government controls what we read, say, eat, drink, smoke, inject, buy, and sell. They control the education of our children. They tax us to pay for a health system and then ration access to that health system as though it's a privilege. Remind me again what makes you think you have the rights of a free adult?
- Duncan Bayne
I believe its your own choice to use vending machines at work - the fact that its full of different products allows you to choose something you really want when you do decide to treat yourself. However if there were more healthy alternatives mixed in with the standard chocolate bars, then some people may chose those instead - for example healthy muesli bars and individual crackers etc. The other factor is that a lot of the time these vending machines provide funds for other services in the workplace, for example, in ours it pays for the Sky in the meal room. If people cant control themselves at work with a vending machine in a public place then what are they like at the supermarket or at home??? Its all about personal choices.
- Caroline
It will not be the economy, crime or tax that will send this Labour Government down the tubes, it will be its arrogant almost pathological need to stick its oar into people's lives. By all means give us the information we need to make healthy choices but the final descision on what we do is ours.
- Tom
It appears that this Government has endless amounts of money to spend on telling tax payers how to live their lives and social engineering projects, and no money to solving real problems like the increasing rate of youth crime and the cutting of hospital weighting lists.
- Michael
People know which food is unhealthy for them (we are bomdarded by nutritional information from every quarter). Further education, and partial removement of unhealthy food would make not an ounce of difference. People consume unhealthy substances (sugar, alcohol, cigarettes) for the temporary dose of happiness this provides, and they do this in full acceptance of all the potential risks to longterm health and happiness. I believe that all living creatures operate on instinct, and act in a way that they perceive will leave them feeling happiest. 'Happiness' is presumably the cue that what we are doing is condusive to our survival and the generation of healthy offspring. Investigation into obesity needs to centre around why we decide that short-term (temporary) happiness is worth the sacrifice to long-term happiness. i.e. Are people who are 'naturally' happier (i.e. happy without the ingestion of happy-making substances) less likely to be obese? If so, is this natural happiness due to the circumstances in their life, or is it an inherent ability to view their circumstances positively, regardless of what they actually are? This sort of investigation is far more likely to result in some helpful suggestions regarding our rapidly widening society. Let me make it clear: the general population are not dunces who are totally ignorant that the food they are eating is unhealthy: we KNOW. Nor do we shove our faces with the nearest thing in the vicinity. People eat unhealthy food because they like the way it makes them feel. You move the food in the vending machines, we will hunt it down elsewhere. Health officials must change their approach. Spend time working out what goes on in our brains, rather than educating us and removing the treats like we were two year olds.
- Amelia
I don't think vending machines should be banned. However I think it's important that there are some healthy options available for those times when you just can't get away from work, but need some sustenance - ie low sugar/fat muesli bars, low fat/salt pasta snacks
- Anna
Yet another example of the government dictating to us what we can and cannot do. What happened to personal responsibility? By taking away our right to choose, you just make it easier for people to let go responsibility for themselves and blame everyone else. Leave the vending machines and their contents as is, but instead have more information available to adults about the healthier ways of life. Don't force us to do what we may not want or be ready to do.
- Zeb Ahmed
What's next I wonder? Health officials coming to our homes to check our refrigerators? People need to stop sticking their noses into other peoples business and concentrate on themselves. It is everybody's right to live as they want so long as they don't hurt others by doing this. If a person wants to smoke that is their right. If they want to eat unhealthy food then that is also their right. If they want sex with the same gender as themselves then this is also their right. My attitude is "Get a life of your own and leave mine alone."
- Karen
Junk food isn't responsible for the obesity epidemic - it's the parents who aren't feeding their kids properly and the lazy people who can't be bothered cooking a decent meal. It's about time people in this country started taking responsibility for their own actions.
- A Howie
Enough already! What the heck are these people thinking? My life, my body - I'll eat what I please, thank you very much. Workplaces will want to seriously consider how much productivity will be lost when people have to leave the office to get their afternoon sugar fixes. This is absolute rubbish.
- Leisa
Education on obesity is great but the Government directing and enforcing what adults can and cannot eat is very scary. What next? Helen will be making rules on when you can go into town, where you go on holiday, who you can marry...Labour doing the thinking for us!
- Greg Sheehan
These "borg" people are now going too far, they should stop sticking their loooong noses into other peoples business. We are not kids, and I object to being treated like one. This country smacks more and more of Communism every day. I will eat, drink and smoke what I want, and no interference by any busibody is going change that. So, take the stuff I want out of the vending machine, I will just go to the nearest dairy.... I will not be assimilated. All who get hurt is the Vending Machine operator.
- Chris
Oh please... Aren't we talking about workplaces here??? We're ADULTS, not little kids having to be told what we can eat or not.
If I crave an occasional unhealthy snack I'll get it one way or the other, and having other people deciding what we can buy from a vending machine or not is the nanny state having gone too far.
- Nina
What ever happened to being responsible for your own actions. The Govt cant start controlling what the public eat, drink, view etc etc and then start expecting the same public to take responsibility for themselves.
- P Folkard
