Submitted to the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Indigenous Affairs.

As the leading organisation of nutrition and dietetic professionals in Australia, Dietitians Australia supports reforms to food policies, food pricing, food systems and food environments in remote Indigenous communities to improve food security and elevate the nutritional health and wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people living in remote locations.

We provided 16 recommendations to the Standing Committee on the topic of food pricing and food security in remote Indigenous communities, including:

1. Australian Government to develop and implement a ‘National Food and Nutrition Security Strategy’, with a particular focus on remote communities and inclusion of the local voice in the development of any food security and food pricing response.
2. Elevation of remote community stores to the status of an ‘essential community service’, with a strong focus on community involvement and support for remote community retailers from government, health and social agencies at a local, state and national level.
3. National Licencing Standards for remote community stores to be strengthened and expanded to takeaway foods within stores, with adequate funding provided for effective monitoring and enforcement processes.
4. Store nutrition policies to be made publicly available so communities and key stakeholders can hold stores accountable for policy implementation.
5. Implementation of a mandatory reporting system for pricing of staple food products in remote community stores. This information should be publicly available to consumers to improve transparency and competition in the market.

For all the recommendations and further details download the full submission.