About the Obesity Policy Coalition
The obesity policy coalition easy partnership among the diabetes Victoria, cancer council Victoria, vichhealth as well as the global obesity centre under the university which is a World Health organisation collaborating centre for the prevention of obesity. The organisation advocates for regulatory change and evidence in formed policy for addressing and healthy diets and overweight as well as challenges of obesity specifically in Australia among children (Opc.org.au. 2022). The obesity policy coalition advocates for the regulatory and policy initiative for supporting the prevention of obesity and set high standards for the composition, promotion and levelling of the foods for protecting the consumers. The organisation has been in operation with the major objective of identifying, analysing as well as advocating for the evidence-based policy as well as regulatory initiative for reducing obesity and overweight at the state as well as national and local level (Australian Medical Association. 2022). The major areas of the policy interest of the organisation includes analysing the initiatives of policy which are likely to have an effect over reducing obesity’s specification in children of Australia. The organisation also targets to undertake research and development in the provision of evidence based for the policy proposals and encourage the government to support initiative in addressing risk factors causing obesity and overweight epidemic. Provision of leadership and guidance as well as assisting researchers and professionals working over the contributories of overweight and obesity are one of the focuses of this organisation. The obesity policy coalition targets to bring enforcement in the existing loss that support the prevention of obesity by persuading the agencies in taking enforcement action specification in relation to the marketing price of food (Opc.org.au. 2022). One of the significant regulatory and legal focus of this organisation is to advocate and reform the development of regulation that might help in the prevention of the obesity epidemic in relation to healthy Levy over sugar drinks and modification in marketing and advertising related to food labelling in the Australian market (Australian Medical Association. 2022).
Tax on sugar drinks is consistently considered to be a critical part of the efforts related to the improvement of diet and prevention of obesity. Research studies reveal that their lies strong evidences in connecting the consumption of sugar drinks to the wide range of negative health impacts including excessive gaining of weight and increase risk of developing blood pressure and obesity and diabetes followed by other allied factors like to the decay and eye issues (Drink, 2020). Global evidences clearly show that sugar drink taxes are effective for the reduction of consumption regarding the text products. This is because taxes over sugar drinks contributes to the increase in the purchase of untaxed drinks specifically the bottled water which have shown to be having impact over the last few years (Miller et al., 2020). This submission addresses the concern related to the intake of sugar drinks in the Australian market specifically among children and youth population that has been leading to the harmful impact of overweight and obesity as well as risk of developing type 2 diabetes.
Advocacy for Regulatory Change and Evidence-Informed Policy
Australia as a nation is currently suffering from acute growing challenge related to health that is obesity and overweight that has been contributing to numerous other health challenges like diabetes and cancer and blood pressure. There has been and rising evidence that intake of sugars is majorly associated with weight gain due to the excessive energy intake and pressure on the blood (Parkes, 2022). Recommendation from the World Health organisation contributes to the fact in reducing free intake of sugar about 10% of the total intake of energy and fibre person for the greatest benefits of health.
In the context of Australia, the obesity related policy of price has received majority of attention specification beverages (Sowa et al., 2019). Some of the significant decisions that has been recommended by the government of Australia in regards to the tax over sugars written beverages includes the following.
Position statement of sugar Sweden beverages by cancer council Australia recommending healthy levy on sugar sweet and beverages or sugary drinks as the part of comprehensive approach in reducing sugar consumption including restriction over children’s reach in marketing of the products and restriction of sale in the schooling and public institution and campaigns – 2016.
OPC policy regarding the case for Australian tax over sugar beverages for reducing consumption by obesity policy coalition. The case for Australian tax on sugar beverages in the year 2014.
Rethink sugar drink alliance by Australian government introducing healthy tax over sugar beverages as the part of approach in decreasing overweight by Rethink sugary drink. Position statement in the year 2017.
Obesity and overweight can be considered as the second greatest factor contributing to burden of disease and increased risk of cancer and type 2 diabetes as well as kidney and heart disease. The overall rate of obesity and overweight has been continuing to increase throughout the nation of Australia where almost two third of Australian are overweight and have been diagnosed with allied healthcare issues (Allen & Allen, 2020). Children’s growing up with the health challenge of obesity and overweight are likely to grow up for becoming obesity adults with risk of chronic health challenges and premature mortality. Research studies reveal that the overall cost of obesity and overweight in Australia is around dollar 8.6 billion comprising dollar 3.8 billion as direct cost and dollar 4.8 billion as the indirect cost of the health challenge (Richardson et al., 2019). The overall cost of obesity in the next 10 years up to 2025 in Australia has been estimated to be dollar 8.7 billion.
Research studies reveal that beverages continue to contribute more than half of the free intake of sugar within the Australian diet. Soft drinks as well as energy drinks accounts for 19% of free sugar intake while commercialised fruit juice and fruit drinks contribute to 13% as what the reports of 2012 in Australia.
Obesity is the silent killer and the risk factor for chronic disease including diabetes and cardiovascular disease and significant type of cancer that is high end by the intake of sugar drinks and beverages among the population in Australia (Morley et al., 2018). The complex set of conditions with multiple comorbidity triggers evidences on regular consumption of sugar beverages that is associated with increased intake of energy and long-term overweight risk in Australia with the reduced feeling of fullness while sugar is being consumed in liquid form (Sowa et al., 2019). Currently the younger age and young population of Australia is the major consumer of sugary beverages which has enhance their preferences for sweet drinks and fruits and has displaced major nutritional beverages like milk.
Policy Focus and Research Objectives
Sugar tax in Australia is not expected to be the material revenue raiser in the nation and is also not this strategic component of tax a framework however still has a significant role in achieving the goal of health policy targeted by the organisation in discussion.
Sugar tax is aimed to reduce consumption of goods that are predominantly consumed by low-income groups and at principally used towards negative externalities of health to the consumer. Australian government have effectively endorsed numerous health risk factors by significant tax increase throughout the last few decades (Acton et al., 2022). This approach has confirmed that excise tax is a useful policy tool for achieving health policy targets irrespective of regressivity and challenges. The consumption pattern of sugar is heterogeneous and wide spread across the population and henceforth the effectiveness and the effect of sugar tax is dependable over the design. One of the many Australian stakeholders, AMA revealed the suggestion regarding the uses of taxation for reducing the sugar consumption which will initially have a regressive burden over the low income countries related to the tax products. Regressivity is a significant policy concern that is needs to be aware of. This is because sugar tax needs to be viewed under the context of public in a progressive Australian tax as well as transverse system. Excise tax are not only the regulatory measurements and tool that are available for influencing consumer behaviour. Proposal of good design as well as implementation is hens for critical for the success of the sugar tax procedure in Australia (Morley et al., 2019). Suggestion regarding litigation of the sugar tax due to the obesity and diabetes health challenges in Australia focuses on tax being a significant first step on tagline obesity and reducing the consumption of short rings. Specific range of beverages and in products approximately 20% of the overall retail value needs to be considered. World Health organisation has also recommended government to consider tax in consumption of less healthy foods and promotion of healthier option (Eykelenboom et al., 2019). Levies over the global sugars sweetened beverages are currently being introduced indicating that taxation influences purchase of consumers and contributes to obesity and diabetes both at National and international level specifically as the part of multisectoral approach.
Prices influences the overall consumption of sugar sweetened beverages in Australia. Youngsters and young people as well as low income consumers are majority at the risk of obesity and response to the food and beverage price changes. Young people in Australia likely to gain the largest health benefit from the tax over the sugar drinks due to their reduction in consumption for the rising price. 2016 study at Australia focused over the effect over 20% ad valorem tax of excise over sugar sweetened beverages over the 25 years. The tax reduced sugar ring consumption by 12.6% and also reduce the overall report related to obesity and overweight by 2.7% in men and 1.2% in female population (Chepulis et al., 2018). The case of type 2 diabetes has also reduced with few cases of heart disease and strokes. The total number of death reports due to the disc factor of obesity has also been potentially prevented by the tax approach. 20% levy was majorly modelled for generating more than dollar 400 million revenue is here also with the decline in consumption and saving of dollar 609 million at the overall healthcare expenditure in the last few years (Australian Medical Association. 2022).
Sugar Drink Taxes and their Effectiveness
Numerous Australian reports collaboratively derived the supportive approach over excise tax over the sugar content of sweet and beverages for reducing consumption and encouraging all the manufacturers and food organisations to reformulate and restructure the sugar content in the beverages. Also marketing and advertising improper information of sugar beverages as healthy and energy drinks which are misleading to numerous youth population has been a centre of concern which has been detected by the government of Australia (Sowa et al., 2019). The federal Government and the state government are in action to address this marketing challenge by implementation of policies that will reduce the misleading information of sugar drinks to the population.
Sugars within beverages majorly includes energy dense but nutritionally poor sugar drinks that appear to increase the total energy intake due to the decreasing satiety since population does not compensate for additional energy consumption by reducing their intake over the drinks (Haque et al., 2020). Less consumption of sugar will gift the population with diabetes , obesity free life which is healthy and full of actions.
Conclusion
The levy on sugar drinks in Australia is not the singular solution to obesity but the introduction of the tax could ensure in becoming the first step of promoting a healthy eating and raise revenue to combat the cost that overweight has imposed over the broader community of Australia.
References
A tax on sugar-sweetened beverages: What the modelling shows. Australian Medical Association. (2022). Retrieved 30 April 2022, from https://www.ama.com.au/articles/tax-sugar-sweetened-beverages-what-modelling-shows.
Acton, R. B., Vanderlee, L., Adams, J., Kirkpatrick, S. I., Pedraza, L. S., Sacks, G., … & Hammond, D. (2022). Tax awareness and perceived cost of sugar-sweetened beverages in four countries between 2017 and 2019: findings from the international food policy study. International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, 19(1), 1-18. https://ijbnpa.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12966-022-01277-1
Allen, W. M., & Allen, K. J. (2020). Should Australia tax sugar?sweetened beverages?. Journal of Paediatrics and Child Health, 56(1), 8-15. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/jpc.14666
Chepulis, L., Mearns, G., Hill, S., Wu, J. H., Crino, M., Alderton, S., & Jenner, K. (2018). The nutritional content of supermarket beverages: a cross-sectional analysis of New Zealand, Australia, Canada and the UK. Public Health Nutrition, 21(13), 2507-2516. https://researchcommons.waikato.ac.nz/bitstream/handle/10289/12298/nutritional_content_of_supermarket_beverages_a_crosssectional_analysis_of_new_zealand_australia_canada_and_the_uk.pdf?sequence=2&isAllowed=y
Drink, R. S. (2020). Health levy on sugar-sweetened beverages: Rethink Sugary Drink position statement. https://www.rethinksugarydrink.org.au/downloads/health-levy-on-sugar-position-statement.pdf
Eykelenboom, M., Van Stralen, M. M., Olthof, M. R., Schoonmade, L. J., Steenhuis, I. H., & Renders, C. M. (2019). Political and public acceptability of a sugar-sweetened beverages tax: a mixed-method systematic review and meta-analysis. International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, 16(1), 1-19. https://ijbnpa.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12966-019-0843-0
Haque, M., McKimm, J., Sartelli, M., Samad, N., Haque, S. Z., & Bakar, M. A. (2020). A narrative review of the effects of sugar-sweetened beverages on human health: A key global health issue. Journal of Population Therapeutics and Clinical Pharmacology, 27(1), e76-e103. https://www.jptcp.com/index.php/jptcp/article/view/666
Miller, C., Ettridge, K., Wakefield, M., Pettigrew, S., Coveney, J., Roder, D., … & Dono, J. (2020). Consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages, juice, artificially-sweetened soda and bottled water: An Australian population study. Nutrients, 12(3), 817. https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/12/3/817/pdf
Morley, B. C., Niven, P. H., Dixon, H. G., Swanson, M. G., McAleese, A. B., & Wakefield, M. A. (2018). Controlled cohort evaluation of the LiveLighter mass media campaign’s impact on adults’ reported consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages. BMJ open, 8(4), e019574. https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/8/4/e019574.abstract
Morley, B., Niven, P., Dixon, H., Swanson, M., Szybiak, M., Shilton, T., … & Wakefield, M. (2019). Association of the LiveLighter mass media campaign with consumption of sugar?sweetened beverages: Cohort study. Health Promotion Journal of Australia, 30, 34-42. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/hpja.244
Parkes, M. (2022). A role for taxation in reducing Australia’s sugar consumption. https://taxpolicy.crawford.anu.edu.au/sites/default/files/uploads/taxstudies_crawford_anu_edu_au/2022-03/complete_policy_brief_1_2022_m_parkes.pdf
Richardson, T. E., Yanada, B. A., Watters, D., Stupart, D., Lamichhane, P., & Bell, C. (2019). What young Australians think about a tax on sugar?sweetened beverages. Australian and New Zealand journal of public health, 43(1), 63-67. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1111/1753-6405.12858
Sowa, P. M., Keller, E., Stormon, N., Lalloo, R., & Ford, P. J. (2019). The impact of a sugar-sweetened beverages tax on oral health and costs of dental care in Australia. European Journal of Public Health, 29(1), 173-177. https://academic.oup.com/eurpub/article/29/1/173/5001571
Who are the Obesity Policy Coalition? – Obesity Policy Coalition. Opc.org.au. (2022). Retrieved 30 April 2022, from https://www.opc.org.au/who-we-are
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