Fiona Nash and the food health ratings website
The then assistant health minister and her chief of staff, Alastair Furnival, intervened to pull a food health star rating website. Furnivall is married to a lobbyist for the junk food sector, Tracey Cain, the only director of Australian Public Affairs, which represented the Australian Beverages Council and Mondelez Australia, Furnival was previously chair of APA and still held shares in the company when acting as Nash’s chief of staff.
According to the ABC, the health star website, which contained detailed information on Australia’s new front-of-pack labelling system for food and beverages, disappeared less than 24 hours after it was launched. The Health Department said a draft version of the site was put up in error, but health groups say there was nothing wrong with it.
The Sydney Morning Herald reported that Furnival and then Senator Nash intervened to pull down the website, despite it being in development for two years and approved by state and territory food ministers.