Scrutinise food makers instead of taxing sugar, Nat MP says

Primrose Riordan
Sep 19 2016

A push for a new sugar tax from the backbench has been shot down by Acting Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce, but one Nationals “sugar belt” MP says food manufacturers might need to come under more scrutiny over how much sugar they add to food.
On Monday Victorian MP Russell Broadbent challenged his colleagues to consider a new tax on sugar, saying there was a disconnect between community health concerns about tobacco versus sugar, and it was the only way to fund sports projects and preventative measures to halt the “major trauma” of childhood diabetes and obesity.
Mr Joyce said Mr Broadbent’s proposal would threaten North Queensland’s sugar industry and the Coalition did not believe in such a tax.
Nationals MP Michelle Landry, who represents the north Queensland seat of Capricornia where the biggest agricultural export is sugar, said such a tax would lead to “massive job losses in her electorate”.
“I have two sugar mills in my electorate with thousands of workers and I think it would have a significant impact on the businesses,” she told The Australian Financial Review.
But she said food manufacturers might need to come under more scrutiny over what they add to packaged food.
“These manufacturers when they make food they do put a lot of sugar into things, and perhaps they should start being more careful about what ingredients they’ll put into things because there’s a lot of sugar,” she said.
Ms Landry said takeaway food businesses needed to be more transparent about their ingredients.
National MPs are also pressuring the government to dramatically change the yet to be implemented backpacker tax, which is being reviewed