Opinion: Sugar tax - let's just do it

A sugar tax would hopefully improve the nation's oral health and tackle the country's obesity epidemic. Photo/Getty Images.

Again we're confronted with shocking statistics about the state of our children's teeth.

Across the country, 36,000 teeth (picture that) were extracted from children last year.

Closer to home, figures released under the Official Information Act by the Bay of Plenty District Health Board show about 1500 teeth were removed from 1200 children aged 0-13 because of decay.

Fifty per cent of five-year-olds are starting school with fillings or decay.

Experts say poverty, a lack of dental therapists and poor parenting are to blame. They say that more education is needed, that fluoridation of the water supplies would help and that a sugar tax is also required.

Some would argue that none of these measures would be necessary if parents kept a watchful eye on what their children were consuming.

It's a valid point, but it ignores the impact of poverty, or a lack of education has on a child's oral health.

Legislators need to go on the front foot over this issue.

Fluoridation would improve the situation, in my view, but anti-fluoridation groups heap pressure on local councils when they consider such a move.

A sugar tax would also likely be met with opposition. However, its impact would be two-fold: It would hopefully improve the nation's oral health and tackle the country's obesity epidemic.

The statistics on obesity are even more frightening. New Zealand is already the world's third-most obese country, and recent research predicted two million Kiwis would be obese by 2038. Last year, 37 per cent of school children were overweight.

Increasing the tax on cigarettes saw tobacco sales shrink by 23 per cent between 2009 and 2013. If a sugar tax were half as successful as that, the nation's collective health would improve dramatically.

We need to follow Britain's lead on this issue. Its tax on soft drinks came into effect earlier this year.

According to a report by Reuters the tax, announced in March 2016, has already cut sugar content in drinks by 45 million kg per year, Britain's Treasury said, as over 50 per cent of manufacturers have reformulated their products to be below the levy's sugar threshold.

How long are we willing to put up with these shocking health statistics? Central Government needs to act on this issue - now.