Obesity costs Australia billions

12/05/2008 17:52:53

Australia's national body for diabetes prevention has told a Parliamentary Committee that state governments must look at long-term funding strategies if they are serious about tackling obesity.

In its submission to the House of Representatives Health Committee, Diabetes Australia says the annual cost of obesity in 2005 was $A25 billion, and that figure is likely to have risen in the past three years.

The organisation's national policy manager, Ian White, says in the past funding for health programs has been tied to political cycles.

He says it will take generations to control the problem of obesity in Australia.

"You are looking at time spans of 10, 15, perhaps 20 years," he said.

"The issue would be, are Government's prepared to put their money where their mouth is in terms of resources to do the job effectively?"

The Committee has also heard that a tax rebate on fresh fruit and vegetables could be part of the solution to obesity.

The Lifestyle Of Our Kids research project is focusing on a number of strategies to encourage children to be more active, including a push to encourage teachers to incorporate more physical education into their lessons.

The project's director, Dick Telford, told the Committee that children should be encouraged to eat more fruit and vegetables and he is pushing for the tax break.

"We propose a tax rebate for purchases of unprocessed fruit and vegetables along the same lines of that for medical expenses in excess of Medicare insurance claims, that's currently 20 percent," he said.

"The receipts, it wouldn't be unwieldly, the receipts are kept according to the usual requirements for tax deductible item rebates such as petrol."

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