GST on fresh produce could endanger health

Adding GST to fresh fruit and vegetables could have significant negative impacts on Australians’ health, researchers from the University of Queensland (UQ) have warned.

Removing the GST exemption on fresh fruit and vegetables could reduce people’s consumption of fruit and vegetables by around 5%, according to Dr Lennert Veerman and Dr Linda Cobiac from UQ’s School of Population Health.

The researchers issued the warnings following federal government talks about broadening the base of the GST and Tony Abbott’s announcement of his commitment to producing a white paper on tax reforms before the next election.

“We’ve estimated that adding GST to fruit and vegetables could add about 90,000 cases of heart disease, stroke and cancer over the lifetime of the current Australian population and add another billion dollars to the country’s healthcare bill,” Dr Veerman said.

Dr Veerman said not eating sufficient fruit and vegetables is associated with increased risk of heart disease, stroke and cancers of the lung, oesophagus, stomach and colon.

Abolishing the GST exemption might also see people eat more of other, less healthy foods, further compounding the problem, Dr Veerman added.

“We could see quite complex shifts in people’s diets, making it very clear that the government should explicitly consider the potential health consequences before making changes to Australia’s tax regime,” Dr Veerman said.

Dr Veerman and Dr Cobiac have detailed their research findings in a letter published in The Medical Journal of Australia on 14 October.