SYDNEY (AFP) - Australian schools will have to show their patriotism by flying the flag and making an effort to tackle childhood obesity under legislation introduced this week as part of a political battle over values.
The debate was initiated by opposition Labor leader Mark Latham soon after his election last December as he sought to switch the focus of the political agenda to values such as aspiration and fatherhood, and new priorities like reading to children.
He took it a step further by announcing last week plans to counter burgeoning childhood obesity with a ban on the advertising of junk food on children's television, an initiative welcomed by health groups but dismissed as "ill-conceived" by the government.
Now Prime Minister John Howard has countered with his own values agenda which includes a requirement that all schools have a functional flagpole and set aside two hours a week for exercise to qualify for extra government funding.
The flags and exercise regime are two of numerous new conditions that will be attached to 31 billion dollars (21 billion US) in school funding for which legislation is due to be introduced to parliament in Canberra on Wednesday.
"If we are to be serious about things like obesity, we need to have a minimum stipulation that all schools at a primary and junior secondary level provide at least two hours a week of physical activity," Howard has said.
Statistically Australian children are among the fattest in the world, with more than a quarter categorised as overweight or obese, while two out of five children do not take part in any physical activity.
The switch of emphasis ahead of an election expected any time from early August to December has taken political analysts by surprise.
"We do seem to be going into a values-type campaign," opinion pollster Sol Lebovic, head of the Newspoll organisation, told AFP.
"Labor seems to have initiated it, by talking about reading to kids, eating too much junk food and so on.
"Now we have the Howard government reacting by talking about flags in schools and exercise programmes. It is certainly taking up a lot of the focus."
Former Labor pollster Rod Cameron, head of the ANOP market research organisation, said for the first time in his 30 years' experience of analysing politics, the issue of values had become paramount as an election battleground.
"Values will be more important than policy for Mark Latham," Cameron told The Australian newspaper.
He said the battle lines had been set with Labor offering values and Howard's coalition having a conventional political agenda, emphasising a steady stream of electoral bribes and pork barrelling.
Elaine Thompson, professor of politics at Sydney's University of New South Wales, said the attempt to talk about values came straight out of US presidential electioneering.
"I think they are trying to see if it will resonate here, but I don't think it will," Thompson told AFP.
"I doubt if these issues will bring them anything in terms of votes. I think the traditional issues like economic management, health and education are still the key."