Tuesday, January 08, 2008

rupture of the deep (fried)



One of Rotto Bloggo’s associates was sounding off about the State Government today, and for a moment we perceived a future Rottnest angle in her angst.

She was as cross as a frog in a sock about Health Minister Jim McGinty’s labelling of fast food as verboten in the future: see this Perth Now story for the details, but essentially it’s ‘…a ban on all deep-fried food, as well as soft drinks that exceed 300kJ a serve – such as a can of Coca-Cola. Chocolate bars and other confectionary exceeding more than 600kJ a serve, including crisps and corn chips, will also be forbidden. The closest a visitor, health worker or patient will get to a chocolate bar will be a fun-size Freddo Frog.’

The ban comes in at the start of next year in public hospitals. “As if adults can’t decide for themselves what they want to seat,” our associate seethed after buying a bag of chips. We delighted in reminding her that Mr McGinty participates in an annual orgy of fat-enriched, high-salt, meat-heavy baking: the lasagna cook-off in the South Freo street (pretty close to Rottnest) in which he lives.

As the State Government runs Rotto, why don’t they get serious, be consistent, and ban fast food on the beautiful island. No more Red Rooter or Subway. Why ban it in hospitals, and not on A-class reserves? The absence of fast food litter would be good (but no doubt some would keep littering anyway).

Perhaps such a ban was mooted by a Rotto tripper in that Synovate document ‘Evaluating the Rottnest Island Experience (Final Report)’ that the Rottnest Island Authority won’t release to Rotto Bloggo. We dunno. If you gave Red Rooter their marching order, would the bakery be persona non grata as well?

1 comment:

  1. Anonymous12:03 PM

    There's also the ban on smoking at the hospitals, including the carparks. Maybe Rotto could be smoke free too? You would have to paddle out to duck rock to light up.

    ReplyDelete