On TI, nothing's ever cheap - unless it's junk food

You may have heard the phrase "there is nothing to fear in life but fear itself".

Well, that’s rubbish and anyone who’s lived in the Torres Strait knows it. There is something to fear – some of the dishonest prices for goods and services.

I am not complaining about fuel prices. If you live in a remote area, things’ll be more expensive because of freight costs. And the rising petrol prices are a reminder to start walking – for the environment. If you’ve had four kids and morphed from mammal to marsupial, it’s also a good way to lose the pouch.

However, in the 150 years since shipping companies had to pay a 2.5 per cent surcharge on insurance policies (Hector Holthouse’s, Ships in the Coral), costs have shot Strait to the top.

How can a block of generic brand cheese I order from Woolies in Cairns at $6.29 cost $14.39 here? It can’t all be freight costs. And toilet paper in one shop on TI cost $5.89 and in another $13.50? Freight from one end of the island to the other?

We had some work done by tradies who charged for double the hours despite written evidence to the contrary. Remember in a story our housing insurance jumped $3000 after Cyclone Larry even though we’ve only had four cyclones in the past 100 years?

What I can’t understand are the discounts on soft drink and junk food in a community where one in three people have diabetes (Torres News July, 2007), which is almost double from the six years previous.

Dr Robyn McDermott said in the article there would be "at least another 1000" who have the condition but don’t realise. She goes on to say diabetes can be prevented with healthy food.

At IBIS, the local supermarket, a staff member pointed out to a customer the sale on Tim Tams at only $2.49. Forget fries. "Would you like Tim Tams with that?"

Apparently, $2.49 is cheap but I wouldn’t know; I’m a chip girl.

I recall a front page story in the Torres News (January, 2007) that a Queensland survey found healthy food cost an extra 30 per cent in "very remote areas" compared to "major cities". However, "unhealthy items … (were) relatively more affordable".

The premises from which two businesses catering to very different palates, Island Rooster (tropical KFC using artery-friendly vegetable oil) and the Fruit Barn (healthy takeaway shop, no frying) were sold and the businesses had to relocate. Guess which one keeps crowing and which closed down?

If junk food is "more affordable" and accessible, wouldn’t that mean people have no incentive to buy healthy food? I propose that the Junk Food Management Plan 2008 be implemented in Torres Strait to control diabetes and obesity and for anyone with an offending BMI.

There is already the framework from the Alcohol Management Plan 2003.

Just cut and paste the key words – pre-mixed spirits and beer to chocolate and chips. Then change the litres to grams.

"No person shall have in their possession … more than a 250 gram packet of chips or biscuits with a fat content in excess of 8 per cent" and so on. Penalties could include onthespot infringement notices for three days of brown rice and paw paw.

Give rewards for those who’ve shed kilos or reduced blood pressure – a free tub of low-fat tofu ice cream or a box of oven-baked rice crackers, say.

No more cruising around the island with some chips. This is a winwinwin for the environment, our blood pressure and our wallets.

It would, of course, mean no more chips for me and the fear of that is worse than the fear of paying $6.19 for a kilo of last season’s stringy valencia oranges.

Share this article