Prime minister says ‘we have enough taxes’ and health authorities should focus on promoting healthy lifestyles

Malcolm Turnbull has rejected the push to introduce a 20% tax on sugary drinks to halt the rise of obesity in Australia, saying the economy already has too many taxes.

He said health authorities would be better off focusing on promoting healthy lifestyles, and proper labelling of food products, and getting people to exercise more.

A coalition of 34 organisations, led by the Obesity Policy Coalition and Deakin University’s Global Obesity Centre, and including the Royal Children’s Hospital Melbourne and the Cancer Council, have united to call for urgent action from the federal government to address Australia’s “serious obesity problem”.

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They have released a report, Tipping the Scales, that identifies eight evidence-based actions they say the Turnbull government must take to reduce the enormous strain excess weight and poor diets are having on the nation’s physical and economic health.

They have called for a 20% tax on sugary drinks, a national obesity taskforce and time-based restrictions on TV junk food advertising to kids.

They have also called for the health star rating to be mandatory by July 2019 and for funding for weight-related public education campaigns.

“Sixty-three per cent of Australian adults and 27% of our children are overweight or obese,” Jane Martin, the executive manager of the Obesity Policy Coalition, said. “This is not surprising when you look at our environment – our kids are bombarded with advertising for junk food, high-sugar drinks are cheaper than water, and sugar and saturated fat are hiding in so-called ‘healthy’ foods.

“The annual cost of overweight and obesity in Australia in 2011-12 was estimated to be $8.6bn in direct and indirect costs such as GP services, hospital care, absenteeism and government subsidies but Australia still has no strategy to tackle our obesity problem.

“It just doesn’t make sense. Without action, the costs of obesity and poor diet to society will only continue to spiral upwards.”

Turnbull agreed on Tuesday that obesity was the next huge health problem in Australia and likened it to smoking. But he dismissed the call for a 20% sugary drinks tax, saying obesity was a complicated problem that required a multi-pronged approach.

“I think we have enough taxes and there are enough imposts on us all when we go to the supermarket and we go shopping,” Turnbull said. “The other thing is, too, where do you draw the line? There is a lot of sugar in a bottle of orange juice. Are you going to put a tax on that?

“I think you are better off focusing on the health message, to get that across, so that people are more aware of what they are eating and the consequences of what they are eating. Labelling is very important, health messages through the media. What you do here is critically important but also exercise. Get up and walk.”

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Anna Peeters, a professor of epidemiology and equity in public health at Deakin University, said the 34 groups behind the report would not let governments simply sit back and watch as growing numbers of Australians developed life-threatening weight and diet-related health problems.



She said obesity posed such an immense threat to Australia’s physical and economic health that it needed its own, standalone prevention strategy.

“For too long we have been sitting and waiting for obesity to somehow fix itself [but], in the obesogenic environment in which we live, this is not going to happen,” she said.

“If current trends continue, there will be approximately 1.75 million deaths in people over the age of 20 years caused by diseases linked to overweight and obesity, such as type 2 diabetes, cancer, heart disease, between 2011-2050.

“There are policies which have been proven to work in other parts of the world, and have the potential to work here, but they need to be implemented as part of a comprehensive approach by governments. And they need to be implemented now.”

