MEDIA RELEASE

Treasury Agrees With Taxpayers' Union; sugar Tax Doesn’t Work

3 FEBRUARY 2017
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

The Treasury’s conclusion that a sugar tax will hurt the very people it is trying to help, is entirely consistent with previous research by the New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union. Responding to today’s release of Treasury’s working papers on the subject, Taxpayers' Union Executive Director Jordan Williams says:

“The Treasury is right to conclude that a sugar tax will be regressive. Because lower income-earners spend a greater proportion of their money on food, sugar taxes would hit them the hardest.”

“Treasury usefully explain why a sugar tax won’t have the desired effect of reducing obesity. The overseas experience is that sugar taxes encourage those at risk to substitute their now pricier sugary food item for a cheaper but equally unhealthy option.”

The Taxpayers’ Union report Fizzed Out: why a sugar tax won’t curb obesity, was published in 2015 and is available at http://www.taxpayers.org.nz/

ENDS

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