Fat tax won't prevent the obesity epidemic: Diabetes Council

A simplistic ‘fat tax’ is not the answer to the looming type 2 diabetes epidemic, the Australian Diabetes Council (ADC) claims.

“The evidence that a ‘fat tax’ will reduce levels of obesity and associated type 2 diabetes is limited,” said Dr Alan Barclay, ADC Head of Research.

“The current Goods and Services Tax (GST) already acts as a de-facto ‘fat tax’ in Australia as it is not levied on fresh fruit and vegetables or other core foods - only so-called ‘junk foods’ like soft drinks, chips, confectionery and fast foods attract the GST.

“A fat tax has in fact already been tried and abandoned in countries such as Denmark, where it was found to have unintended and overwhelmingly negative economic consequences.

“Recent studies have shown that we should be encouraging subsidies of healthier foods, not more taxes, if we want people from lower socio-economic groups to improve their diets. This, along with continued education on how to live a healthier lifestyle and better infrastructure would provide a larger benefit to people in disadvantaged areas, such as Western Sydney’s ‘diabetes danger zones’.”

Recent ADC research revealed that seven of the top ten suburbs in NSW containing people with diabetes are located within Western Sydney. With diabetes prevalence growing by 7.2% each year, the ADC expects the number of Australians with diagnosable diabetes to hit 2.65 million by 2018.