Nearly eight in 10 Canberrans believe obesity is major problem for adults and more than 60 per cent think it is an issue for children, but only a small minority think it's a critical problem for themselves or their immediate family.
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A survey released by the ACT government on Wednesday reveals only 20 per cent of people believe overweight or obesity is a major or critical problem for themselves compared with 15 per cent who believed it was an issue for their immediate family.
The latest ACT Chief Health Officer's report reveals two-thirds of ACT adults are overweight while one in four is considered obese.
Chief Minister Katy Gallagher said the numbers had effectively tripled since 1995 and one if four children were now overweight or obese.
"When you put these statistics next to the fact that we have the best educated, most affluent population in Australia, the fact that our health in a whole range of indicators leads the nation and yet you can see there's absolutely no difference here for us, which highlights the challenge for us," she said.
The research found most ACT residents were comfortable with the government using active regulations and controls to reduce overweight and obesity for primary school children, high school and college students as well as adults.
Ms Gallagher revealed the research while addressing the Primary Health Care Research Conference where she discussed the goverment's Towards Zero Growth: Healthy Weight Action Plan.
"There is no doubt that it will be governments and through them, the taxpayers, who face the greatest costs of inaction," she said.
"While the challenges are daunting, the decision to act, I think, is very straightforward. Governments can lead the community on this issue and cries of a nanny state can be overcome by reasoned, evidence-based policy and already here in the ACT, we are seeing overwhelmingly positive public response to the actions the government is taking despite being called, usually by my political opponents, a faddist and somebody who is trying to take lollies away from children and not let them have lemonade anymore at parties."
The survey of 1000 adults also showed strong support for the government ensuring school canteens carry a wide range of healthy food and drink options and as well as increasing the amount of physical activity children do at school. It also found 69 per cent of people strongly supported promoting active transport for kids such as riding or walking to school and limiting the sale of unhealthy food and drink in school canteens.
Ms Gallagher said the Towards Zero strategy was about stopping the growth in obesity, rather than trying to decrease it.
"I can tell you that trying to push this (the strategy) through the bureaucracy has been incredibly difficult. As the head of government, you'd think I'd have some say but it's taken a long time to pull the wheels of the bureaucracy behind me," she said.
Ms Gallagher spoke of her support for healthy food star ratings and spoke of the pressure facing parents at supermarket checkouts.
She said it was up to the government to show initiative and lead by example when it came to tackling Canberra's obesity epidemic.
Initiatives include the phasing out of sugary drinks in Canberra's schools this year.
Ms Gallagher said tackling the obesity problem could not be the sole responsibility of the health directorate and a whole of government approach was needed.
She also said work was underway to improve healthy food options at government workplaces.
She also said she she believed there were areas in Canberra where changes could be made quite cheaply to encourage more people to walk, run or cycle.
"Obesity is one of those wicked public health problems - the causes are well known, the costs of becoming clearer, the solutions are at face value fairly simple," she said.
