Coalition, ALP reject sugar drink tax
THE Turnbull Government and the Labor Opposition have defied a call from the Australian Medical Association to introduce a tax on sugary drinks.
Australia’s peak medical body insisted the tax needed to be a priority as more than half of Australians were at risk because of body weight.
The AMA urged the government to make improved nutrition and eating habits a priority through education and food literacy programs, mandatory food fortification, restriction on food and beverage advertising to children and a sugary beverage tax.
In its statement on nutrition in 2018, the AMA said the government needed to put a tax on sugarsweetened beverages as a matter of priority.
But, the Coalition insisted it was taking the required action to tackle the challenge of obesity and would not tax sugary drinks.
“We do not support a new tax on sugar to address this issue,” a spokesman for Health Minister Greg Hunt said yesterday.
He said the government had taken action by backing labelling laws for ingredients and nutritional information and supported voluntary measures to restrict food marketing to children.
Federal deputy opposition leader Tanya Plibersek conceded the federal government should help tackle the “obesity epidemic” in the country but stopped short of supporting the tax
“We don’t have a plan for sugar tax at the moment,” she said.