Call for tax on sugary soft drinks

Three of Australia's biggest health groups want the Federal Government to follow the lead of some other countries and introduce a tax on sugary drinks.

The Cancer Council, Diabetes Australia and the Heart Foundation of Australia have joined forces to increase public awareness of the potential health impacts of soft drinks and energy drinks, and encourage consumption of healthier alternatives such as water.

They are calling on all schools in Australia to ban the sale of soft drinks to tackle the growing rate of obesity.

A 2007 national survey found 47 per cent of Australian children aged between two and 16 consumed sugary drinks daily.

"What many people don't realise is just the sheer amount of sugar that is in a regular can of soft drink," the Cancer Council's Craig Sinclair said.

"The default purchase is not 375 millilitres in a can, it is 600ml and in 600ml alone, there is 16 teaspoons of sugar."

The Heart Foundation's Kellie-Ann Jolly says a tax could be an effective option.

"We want to investigate some of the tax options and get the Federal Government to have a look at this to see whether increasing the price of sugary drinks can have an impact on consumption," she said.

"We've seen this through tobacco and there are reviews that have been undertaken in America that actually shows that if we can increase the price, then there is a likelihood that we can actually decrease the consumption."

The three groups would also like to see governments introduce tough restrictions on the advertising of soft drinks and on the sale of them in schools.

"There is still too many schools, both particularly in secondary schools, that have vending machines and they're selling sugar-sweetened beverages within the school canteens," Mr Sinclair said.

"That's clearly unacceptable."

But the groups acknowledge that the onus is on parents to help steer their children away from sugar, and instead towards water or low-fat milk.

'They do contain energy'

The Australian Beverages Council, which represents soft drink makers, says it has already done "a fair amount of work" to address the issue of distribution in schools.

"About 10 years ago the industry restricted the sale of sugar-sweetened soft drinks to primary schools," chief executive officer Geoff Parker said.

"Let's not forget as well, these drinks do contain energy and that's exactly what kids need to run around particularly in high schools, but we haven't sold sugar-sweetened beverages to primary schools for quite some time."

Mr Parker denied that sugary drinks were contributing to childhood obesity.

"What contributes to childhood obesity are all kilojoules from the diet," he said.

"No one food or beverage causes obesity and this is why we think this particular campaign is somewhat misguided."

He says the industry is already meeting the concerns of health organisations.

"We'd like to work towards educating people about the concept of the total diet," Mr Parker said.

"This single focus on a particular nutrient, in this case sugar, is a misguided approach.

"It didn't work 10 years ago with 'avoid fat'. It's not going to work now with 'avoid sugar'.

"What people need to understand is that all kilojoules matter, regardless of where they come from in the diet."

The Federal Government has ruled out putting a tax on soft drinks and Mr Parker says his industry is also opposed to such a measure.

"We're not anti-tax but we're against discriminatory taxes," he said.

"The Henry Tax Review said that these types of taxes don't work. The 2010 Productivity Commission into childhood obesity and the economic perspective said these types of taxes don't work so again, we're not against taxes but we're against discriminatory taxes."

Source: ABC News, 17 January 2013