Young sweet on tax

MOST young Australians support a tax on sugar-sweetened drinks, Deakin University research conducted in Geelong shows.

But researchers say the findings suggest one intervention alone will “never be a silver bullet solution”.

Young people were particularly supportive of a tax if funds were directed to health promotion initiatives, the research found.

The Australian-first study, published in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health, surveyed 1793 Geelong residents aged 18 to 30 to determine their support for a proposed tax of 40 cents per 100 grams of sugar in sweetened drinks.

The tax would equate to a price increase of 15 cents for the average can of soft drink or 80 cents for a two litre bottle.

More than half of respondents said they would reduce their consumption of sugary drinks if such a tax was introduced, with most saying they would have water instead.

Lead researchers Tom Richardson and Brendan Yanada, trainee doctors at Deakin’s School of Medicine, were inspired to tackle the research project as they felt the nation’s biggest consumers of sugary drinks — young people — had been left out of the conversation around a sugar tax.

Forty-eight per cent of those surveyed supported the introduction of a sugar tax.

But this increased to 74 per cent if the tax revenue was allocated to subsidising fruit and vegetables, and 72 per cent if it funded community exercise facilities. Two in five young people surveyed had consumed a sugar-sweetened beverage the previous day.