Sickly sweet: It's time for a sugary drinks tax

The result is thousands of people living With surging adoption and growing evidence, it’s past time for Australia with sickness and disability, and billions of dollars a year in government to catch up with the rest of the world and introduce a sugary drinks tax. [...] In 2023, type 2 diabetes was responsible for about 2.2 per cent of the total burden of disease in Australia, and contributed to at least 6 per cent of deaths.9 Diabetes can also cause blindness, amputation, heart disease, and kidney disease.10 1.3 Obesity and diabetes have significant economic costs The costs of diabetes and obesity are significant, and include direct costs to the healthcare syste. [...] per cent tax leads to a 10-to-15 per cent drop in sugary drink sales, And while the full effects will take time to emerge, there are already though the size of the change varies around the world.43 One study in promising signs that sugary drink taxes are improving dental health and a convenience store in a Melbourne hospital found that a 20 per cent reducing obesity. [...] increase in the price of sugary drinks was followed by a 28 per cent decline in purchases.44 3.1 Sugary drink taxes have spread around the world 3.3 Tiered taxes get manufacturers to cut sugar There are taxes on sugary drinks in at least 117 countries around the world,37 covering 57 per cent of the world’s population.38 They are part To avoid the tax and its impact on sales, manufacturers cut the. [...] Between 2015 and 2019, the share of products above the tax threshold, with more than 5 2022, the sugar in Australian soft drinks decreased by 18 per grams of sugar per 100ml, fell from more than half (52 per cent) to just cent.c That is less than half of the UK’s 46 per cent reduction in 15 per cent.47 The share with very high sugar crashed from 38 per cent just five years with a sugary drinks tax.