24 August 2004

Fat Tax Today - Fat Police Tomorrow?

New Zealand First health spokesperson Barbara Stewart says that specifically targeted campaigns to encourage healthy eating and regular exercise would be more useful than trying to impose an across the board “fat tax” to curb obesity.

This follows the release of a report by Diabetes New Zealand and Fight the Obesity Epidemic suggesting that a tax on fatty foods and soft drinks was both viable and justified and the only way to reduce obesity-related conditions such as diabetes.

“A tax on unhealthy foods would be difficult to enforce – one person’s unhealthy food is someone else’s gourmet delight and cultural differences would also have to be taken into account,” said Mrs Stewart.

“The most logical way to reduce the number of obesity-related conditions is to increase our knowledge of the importance of a healthy diet and regular exercise.

“The nationwide ‘Push Play’ campaign developed a greater awareness of the importance of good nutrition and physical activity and this is the sort of message we need to continue promoting.

“We are all eventually responsible for what we eat and the best way to help people make the right choices is to educate them,” said Mrs Stewart.

ENDS

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Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>