A Labor MP has issued a call for a new tax on sugary drinks such as Coke, fruit juices and sports drinks – a year after a controversial national inquiry into the diabetes epidemic recommended the levy.
Dr Mike Freelander, MP for the federal seat of Macarthur on Sydney‘s south-western edge, told Daily Mail Australia this week that he supports a levy on sugar-sweetened beverages.
Dr Freelander, a medically-trained doctor, called on Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to support a proposal, pushed by a parliamentary inquiry he chaired, to force beverage producers to make healthier drinks.
The 20 per cent tax would also raise an additional $1.4billion of government revenue over four years – coming at a time where tobacco excise collection dropped almost $5billion this financial year.
‘The levy is a way to encourage manufacturers to reduce sugar content in their products and there is increasing global evidence of the benefits on community health and wellbeing,’ said Dr Freelander, a backbencher.
Sugar-sweetened beverages are defined as water-based drinks with added caloric sweeteners such as sucrose, high-fructose corn syrup, or fruit juice concentrate.
The tax would include soft drinks, sports drinks, fruit drinks, energy drinks, cordials and drinks made with added fruit juice concentrate.
A number of Coalition members of the diabetes inquiry committee opposed the introduction of a levy in the final report.
Dr Mike Freelander (right), the Labor member for Macarthur has reaffirmed his support for a sugary drinks tax a year after a parliamentary inquiry he chaired recommended the levy
Health experts have resurfaced calls for a sugary drinks tax in Australia in a bid to tackle the ongoing obesity and diabetes epidemic
Deputy chair of the committee Julian Leeser, Liberal MP for Berowra, said the tax would disproportionately fall upon Australia’s lowest earners.
‘People are doing it tough and struggling to pay bills and put food on the table,’ he told the Sydney Morning Herald last year.
‘There’s also a real issue about whether a sugar tax would change behaviour.’
Dr Freelander’s comments come as a new study showed public support for a sugar tax.
The study was published in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health on Wednesday and led by professor Caroline Miller, president of the Public Health Association of Australia (PHAA).
More than half (56 per cent) of the study’s 1800 respondents supported a health levy tax on sugary drinks in line earlier research from 2017.
Dr Miller said sugary drinks were a significant contributor to obesity – a disease which has overtaken cancer as the leading cause of Australia’s preventable disease burden.
She said Australia is facing a serious public health issue, one that warrants a policy approach defined by ‘strong leadership’.
Julian Leeser, the Liberal member for Berowra (pictured) last year opposed calls for a sugar tax in Australia, claiming the tax would disproportionately hurt low-earners
Critics of the sugar tax claim dietary choices should be left to the individual and that lower-earning Australians would be hardest hit by the levy.
The Australian Beverages Council has led the opposition against the sugary drinks tax – claiming declining consumption rates suggested something else was to blame.
‘The tax is a misguided attempt to address a complex problem like obesity that lacks real world evidence it has any discernible impact on weight,’ Geoff Parker, chief executive of the Council said in a statement last year.
‘Consumption of sugar from drinks in Australia has decreased significantly over the last 20 years at the same time overweight, obesity and diabetes rates have continued to rise.
‘Clearly soft drinks aren’t driving the nation’s expanding waistline which makes this call for a tax illogical and clearly just a revenue raiser for public health groups.’
Sugar taxes are already in place in a number of European and American countries including the UK, France, Norway, Mexico and Chile.
One study suggested the daily sugar intake of UK children fell by five grams within a year of the tax being introduced in 2018, while adults cut their intake by 11 grams.
But chief executive of the PHAA Terry Slevin said the study proved there was ‘genuine community concern about unhealthy drinks’.
‘Health Minister Mark Butler and the Albanese government have implemented strong and effective measures to curb smoking and vaping, we believe similarly decisive action is needed to tackle obesity.
‘We know what needs to be done, now is the time to do it.’
The Australian Medical Association, the peak representative body for doctors in Australia, advocates for a tax of $0.40 per 100 grams of sugar.
