Figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics show 35.5 per cent of adults are overweight and another 27.9 per cent obese. So nearly two-thirds of us (63.4 per cent) – and more than a quarter (27 per cent) of Australian children – are above a healthy weight.
As a result we’re seeing an increase in diseases like type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease and some cancers. These all erode quality of life and contribute to premature death. The Obesity Policy Coalition calculates that over the next 30 years, 1.75 million Australians will die prematurely from being overweight.
Being overweight is often put down to a lack of willpower and poor choices. If only we’d eat better and exercise more! But increasingly, health experts have highlighted how promotion and availability of energy-dense, nutrient-poor food has a major impact.
In January, an Australian Medical Association report urged all levels of government to prioritise improving Australians’ nutrition and eating habits. They urged a raft of measures including better food labelling, banning junk food ads targeting children, and the introduction of a tax on sugar-sweetened beverages like soft drinks. These contain bulk kilojoules but scant nutrient value – and they’re a major driver of weight gain. AMA President Dr Michael Gannon suggested introducing a sugar tax would be easy to implement – and while on its own won’t fix the obesity crisis, “it’s certainly part of the jigsaw”.
More than 26 countries, including Britain, France, Mexico and South Africa, have already put a tax on sugary drinks. Mexico applied a 10 per cent tax in 2014, and purchases of taxed drinks dropped by 5.5 per cent in 2014 and 9.7 per cent in 2015.
How have Australian political leaders responded?
A spokesperson for federal Health Minister Greg Hunt said, “Obesity and poor diets are complex health issues with multiple contributing factors, requiring a community-wide approach as well as behaviour change by individuals. We do not support a new tax on sugar to address this issue.”
And the Opposition? “We don’t have a plan for a sugar tax at the moment,” said Deputy Opposition Leader Tanya Plibersek.
It’s true that obesity is a complex health and social issue, requiring multiple strategies. But why would you leave any effective strategy, such as a sugar tax, in the locker, when faced with a problem that has such dreadful impacts on the health and wellbeing of so many?
One reason is that sugar and beverage industry groups have been working hard to keep a sugar tax off the agenda. The Sydney Morning Herald reported in January that a rapidly withdrawn online document from the Australian Beverages Council confided that its lobbying of politicians and bureaucrats against such a tax was “consuming vast amounts of resources”. And as we head closer to a federal election, both major parties are nervous about “sugar cane” seats in northern NSW and Queensland.
Despite united and persistent calls by so many public health and medical experts, it seems our political leaders simply lack the will to act. For now at least, they appear to care more about the interests of Big Sugar and Soft Drink, and their own political survival, than the health and wellbeing of us and our children.
