Former MP: Tax junk food

FORMER health minister and Anglimp South Waghi MP Jamie Maxtone-Graham wants the government to impose tax on unhealthy food that causes lifestyle diseases, especially diabetes.
He told a media conference to welcome diabetes expert Dr Gabriel Cousens in Port Moresby yesterday that other countries had done this as a preventative measure against lifestyle diseases.
 Cousens was invited by the Minister for Public Enterprises and State Investments Ben Micah to promote his programmes on the prevention of diabetes.
Maxtone-Graham said the government imposed taxes on alcohol and tobacco and should do the same for unhealthy food.
He said the money collected from the taxes should be used to subsidise healthy food such as fruits and vegetables.
He joined Micah to lead a fight against diabetes in the country and stressed that PNG should not follow Nauru where wealth led to diabetes epidemic.
“We need to fight the enemy and defeat it head-on and we need to spend more money on prevention.”
Maxtone-Graham praised Micah for speaking out publicly about his health condition, adding that many leaders with health problems were too shy to talk openly about their problems.
“You’ve identified diabetes and it’s a threat to the whole nation.”
Micah suggested that health be made a condition for employment in all state-owned companies.
He said many heads of companies and senior public servants were dying in their 30s and 40s while their parents and grandparents were still alive in the villages.
In fact, these types of deaths occur through the urban areas of the country.   
Micah said that so much more money was spent on HIV/AIDS compared with diabetes but nothing had changed.

He said there was a need for greater understanding of diabetes and appealed to people to eat garden food as it contained a lot of nutrients.