Junk food levy won't trim childhood obesity

A Productivity Commission report yesterday criticised proposed junk food taxes, advocated by health experts, saying they would be hard to justify.

"Bans or taxes on particular energy-dense nutrient-poor foods, for example, face design difficulties, affect all consumers regardless of their weight status, and in the case of taxes, can have perverse budgetary and health effects particularly for the neediest groups," it said.

The Productivity Commission working paper also said there was little evidence that snack food ads made children fatter. "The evidence suggests that the link between television viewing and childhood obesity is, at most, small," it said.

The paper backed "softer interventions" such as education campaigns.

An estimated 8 per cent of Australian children are considered obese, while 17 per cent are overweight.

This month public health experts called for tobacco-style taxes on unhealthy snacks. Monash University's Holly Bond said obesity had overtaken smoking as the leading cause of illness and premature death, and should be similarly taxed.

"We propose that a tax on junk food be implemented as a tool to reduce consumption and address the obesity epidemic," she said.

Australian Food and Grocery Council chief executive Kate Carnell said taxing junk food did not stop children consuming it.

"A number of states in the US have put taxes on soft drink and so on, and obesity levels are exactly the same as everywhere else," she said.

Consumer behaviour expert Paul Harrison, from Deakin University, said taxes could bring down junk food consumption if they were big enough.