The Australian Medical Association (AMA) is calling for a tax on sugary drinks, believing that a targeted sugar tax would help combat obesity and other preventative chronic diseases such as type two diabetes, heart disease, stroke and some cases of cancer. 

The call has been backed by a new Grattan Institute report, by Peter Breadon and Jessica Geraghty, that says Australia’s obesity rate has tripled since 1980, and the number of Australians with type two diabetes has nearly tripled since 2000.

Breadon and Geraghty attribute this to excessive sugar consumption in Australia.

According to the AMA’s #SicklySweet campaign, Australians drink more than 2.4 billion litres of sugary drinks each year.

AMA president Prof Steve Robson says: “Sugary drinks make us sick, and we know this is a huge health problem for Australia.

“Sugar hides in a lot of drinks and we don’t realise the huge quantities we are actually consuming ― it’s not always immediately apparent.”

The AMA’s modelling suggests a sugar tax could result in government revenue of $2.8billion across four years.

“Of course, this revenue is above and beyond the burden and cost we could save the health system. Anything we can do to lessen the strain on our health system, particularly while our hospitals are in logjam, is critical. That’s why I’m pleased to see Grattan join us in this fight,” says Professor Robson.

“The World Health Organisation has called for this and there are already more than 100 countries and jurisdictions that have acted and introduced sugar taxes. If we want to see industry reformulate their products in Australia and we want a healthier society, then now is the time to act.”

Modelling by the Grattan Institute shows that their proposed tax would reduce consumption of the drinks with the most sugar by about 275 million litres a year, seeing the average Australian drinking nearly three quarters of a kilogram less sugar each year.