This has been a big weekend in Australia. Not only has it been a holiday weekend, we have had the grand finals in the two major sporting codes in the country, rugby league and Aussie rules football. The Geelong Cats have won the AFL and Manly have won the NRL. Congratulations to both teams.
We like to think of ourselves as a sporting nation and in years gone by the image of Aussies was of a hardy, healthy, male-oriented society. In recent years, however, the image of the bronzed Aussie has copped a battering as the levels of obesity have skyrocketed. Australia is now second to the United States as the fattest nation on earth.
Over the weekend - as we were all hearing about the footy grand finals - we heard the news that Denmark has imposed the world's first "fat tax". This is an extra tax on fatty and unhealthy food in order to discourage consumption and finance good health initiatives. It has been talked about for several years - ever since obesity became a major problem in the early 2000s - but governments have jibbed on bringing it in until now.
Normally I'm against new taxes. The money normally ends up creating bigger government and employing more bureaucrats, plus the taxes are sometimes misguided and unnecessary as is the case with the carbon tax. But in the case of the fat tax, perhaps we should give it a go.
Governments and nutritionists have tried almost everything to curb the obesity epidemic. We've seen educational programs, ads on the TV, nutitional information on products - all to no avail. Obesity levels are still way too high as a visit to any shopping centre will attest to.
I know many people will regard a fat tax as a wowser initiative but we are really at the end of the line in trying to deal with obesity and unhealthy lifestyles. The softly softly approach has failed and we need to look at new initiatives. There is a tax summit in Canberra this week and the fat tax should be on the agenda.
The Danish fat tax should be examined closely, and if it has an effect in curbing the consumption of unhealthy foods and encouraging health and fitness then it should be introduced here.
