Australia’s obesity rate has tripled since 1980, while the number of Australians with type 2 diabetes has nearly tripled since 2000. Obesity is the second-leading risk factor contributing to death, and diabetes contributes to one in 10 deaths. The result is thousands of people living with sickness and disability, and billions of dollars a year in government spending. These problems are expected to keep getting worse, unless Australian governments take action.

Many policies are needed to reverse these trends. But one is cheaper and easier to implement than all the others: a tax on sugar-sweetened drinks.

Grattan Institute modelling shows that their proposed tax would reduce consumption of the drinks with the most sugar by about 275 million litres a year, or the volume of 110 Olympic swimming pools. The average Australian would drink nearly 700 grams less sugar each year.

The financial impact on households, industry, and sugar farmers would be small, as experience around the world demonstrates. Despite shrill warnings from vested interests, the introduction of these taxes has gone smoothly overseas.