The Australian Medical Association has renewed its calls for a tax on sugar-flavoured soft drinks as obesity overtakes smoking as the major cause of preventable deaths.
The AMA has released a policy paper calling for selected sugar-sweetened beverages to be taxed at a rate of 50c per 100g of sugar.
This would lift the price of an average 375ml can of soft drink by 20 cents.
AMA President Dr Danielle McMullen said Australia should catch up with more than 100 jurisdictions around the world that had implemented a successful sugar tax.
“Australia’s obesity crisis will cost the health system $38 billion over the next four years if nothing is done,” Dr McMullen said.
“But here’s the good news for the major political parties ahead of an election: there is a tried, tested and easily implemented policy that can significantly curb the prevalence of obesity, type 2 diabetes, heart disease and stroke.”
Dr McMullen said the tax proposal would drive down annual sugar consumption by 2kg per person, while raising $3.6 billion in government revenue over the forward estimates.
“Australia is so far behind the eight ball, it’s not funny,” she said.
“The United Kingdom, France, Mexico, Chile, Catalonia in Spain, several states in the US — these are just a few of the jurisdictions where sugar consumption dropped after a sugar tax was implemented.”
Dr McMullen said people needed to be encouraged to drink water rather than soft drinks.
