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Fruit and veg GST may be scrapped NEW Zealand's largest health board wants GST on fruit and vegetables scrapped, a fat tax on junk food, and an annual weigh-in for primary school kids.The Canterbury District Health Board (CDHB) is calling for a new obesity taskforce for tough action to combat the obesity epidemic, criticising current resources as "grossly inadequate". It says the implementation of the Health Ministry's action plan Healthy Eating - Healthy Action (Heha) as "fragmented and haphazard". In a hard-hitting submission to the health select committee's enquiry into obesity and type 2 diabetes the health board criticised the lack of structure, leadership and vision around nutrition and physical activity. It said New Zealand was following trends which in the United States and New South Wales had seen the number of children with type 2 diabetes - largely obesity-related - double in just five years. These children could suffer kidney failure, blindness and heart disease as early as their mid-20s. "The cost of treating these and other obesity related diseases cannot be maintained," said the health board. "Only by reversing the trend in obesity can we hope to contain this epidemic." It has called for an obesity taskforce to research, develop, manage and monitor a national approach to obesity. The CDHB said such a taskforce should investigate scrapping GST on fruit and vegetables with research showing that fruit and vegetables and lean meats were "consistently the most expensive and proportionally the main contributors to food costs". The health board also suggested an investigation into a "fat tax" on unhealthy foods. Junk food and its marketing should be banned in schools, said the CDHB. There were concerns schools had become "retail fronts" for businesses, with vending machines and chocolate fundraisers. An obesity taskforce should also consider yearly weigh-ins of all primary school children by their GPs "because many parents of overweight/obese children do not realise that their children are outside the healthy weight range". Robyn Toomath, a diabetes specialist and spokeswoman for Fight the Obesity Epidemic, said removing GST from fruit and vegetables was "incredibly obvious" with considerable evidence to show price could change behaviour. "Financial incentives have been greatly overlooked in terms of their potential." A fat tax may not only influence consumers but also manufacturers to produce healthier food. She called for regulation to force schools, industry, advertisers and others to achieve goals under the Heha strategy. Health Minister Pete Hodgson said he agreed with the CDHB that more needed to be done. "We have underestimated the importance of overweight and obesity and all of its effects." |
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