Probable Consequences of Incorporating Sugar Tax in Australia

Running head: PUBLIC HEALTH LAW AND POLICY
Public Health Law and Policy
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1PUBLIC HEALTH LAW AND POLICY
Ministry of Health,
P.O BOX 9848
Canberra Act 2601, Australia.
20 September 2018
Dear Minister,
Re: Probable Consequences of Incorporating Sugar Tax in Australia
In collaboration with the Australian National Health (ANH) and Medical Research
Council’s Australian Dietary (MRCAD), the Obesity Policy Coalition (OPC) would opt to
advice and campaign for the backing of policy intervention, which strives to uplift eating healthy
to diminish disease and obesity rate in Australia. This letter strives to call out to the federal
government, as it still lags behind to implement taxes on sugary and unhealthy foods. The federal
government, on the other hand, is of view that incorporation of such taxes would make the

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citizens discontent and it would also lead to the levy of taxes on several other junk and fast food
products. In the position of Senior Policy and Advocacy Officer of OPC, it is advised to the
minister that levy of tax on unhealthy food and sugar sweetened Beverages (SSB) would be
beneficial for lowering the choric diseases suffered by the citizens. It is recommended that the
revenue generated from the levy of tax on unhealthy food should be devoted to the promotion of
healthy food for the betterment of health of the citizens. It would also help to generate fund for
the low Socioeconomic Position households (SEP).
Obesity Policy Coalition (OPC) claims to be a NGO that is concerned with the issue of
obesity in Australia. It was established in 2006 for focusing on chronic diseases like diabetes,
cancer that results out of unhealthy habits and eating disorders. It was established by the
collaborative effort of the Diabetes Victoria (DV), VicHealth, Cancer Council Victoria (CCV)
and the Global Obesity Centre at Deakin University. OPC aims at effecting changes in the law
and order pertaining to prevention of obesity, especially among children. It is to be noted that the
country is presently facing a high rate of obesity issues and diseases related to it. Recent statistics
states that 63.4% of adults and 27.4% of children between 5-17 years of age suffer from
overweight issues or obesity? (Opc.org.au. 2018).
The main aim and objective of OPC is to ascertain, investigate and promote improved
policy and regulatory measures based on evidence that is required to diminish the issues of
obesity in Australia. The OPC is concerned with the proper functioning of various policies that
analyze and prioritize to abolish obesity, particularly in children. OPC tries to influence the
government agencies to deal with the issue of obesity. OPC ensures to provide guidelines and
leadership programs for helping policy professionals and researchers for working on the issues of
overweight and obesity. Along with taking the policy initiatives, OPC strives to influence

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various regulatory and legal initiatives as well ("Action areas - Obesity Policy Coalition", 2018).
Such legal and regulatory initiatives strive to uplift and strengthen the existing law and order
pertaining to the issues of obesity and diseases relating to it. The organization requests various
regulatory bodies and agencies related to food and nutrition to take measures on the marketing of
healthy foods and disregarding the unhealthy ones ("Who are the Obesity Policy Coalition? -
Obesity Policy Coalition", 2018).
As per Veerman et al,. (2016), it is highly recommended to curb the consumption of
Sugar Sweetened Beverages (SSB) as its consumption is excessively high in Australia. It would
only be possible if a steep tax were levied on it, which would automatically diminish the
consumption. Present statistics confirms that that Australian consumes sugary drinks like soft
drinks excessively which is one of the major reasons behind chronic diseases like diabetes. There
are data that clearly shows that there has been a consumption of 1.1 billion liters of SSB in 2015
bought for 2.2 billion Australian dollars, excluding other junk and unhealthy food. It even
exceeds the guideline provided by WHO on the limitation of the consumption of SSB
(Opc.org.au, 2018). It was found out that the major consumer of SSB was among the age group
of 14-18 years.
The levy of tax on unhealthy food can be considered as a measure to reduce its
consumption by the Australians. Cobiac et al., (2017) points out that as per the economic theory
of price elasticity, which states that price of a commodity controls its demand; similarly, the
price of the unhealthy things would fluctuate their demand as well. Therefore, when price of
unhealthy things would be increased or they would be heavily taxed, their consumption would
naturally decrease and so would the rate of chronic diseases (Kaiser et al., 2013). OPC lays down
a statistical data that a hike of 20% revenue on SSB would observe a decline in 12.6%