GST on fresh food would make Australia sick: Health
groups
Health groups have
rejected a call for the GST to be applied to fresh food,
warning such a change would worsen already alarming
rates of obesity and chronic disease.
Whereas
most processed food is covered by the GST, fresh fruit
and vegetables, meat, eggs, bread, some dairy products
and other basic items were exempted from the tax under a
2000 deal between the Howard government and the
Australian Democrats.
Liberal backbencher Dan
Tehan this week launched a debate about the future of
the tax by arguing for reconsideration of the exemptions
on food, as well as those on health and education.
"We must finish reforming our tax system by broadening
the GST," Mr Tehan argued in The Australian Financial
Review.
But Public Health Association of Australia chief
executive Michael Moore said applying the GST to fresh
food would be "short-sighted" because it would lead to
higher rates of obesity, heart disease and cancer would
place an additional burden on the health system.