National Obesity Prevention Strategy 2022–2032: Response to the Consultation

This submission reproduces Research Australia’s answers to the electronic survey on the draft National Obesity Prevention Strategy 2022–2032. Research Australia agrees with the overall approach, vision, principles, ambitions and enablers, but maintains that the path to implementation is unclear and that, with obesity already widespread, the Strategy must address treatment and weight reduction as well as prevention. It suggests adopting the four levels of prevention from the draft National Preventive Health Strategy, renaming the document the ‘National Obesity Strategy’, and adding subsidiary targets for particular age groups, noting that 83% of men and 74% of women aged 45–54 are overweight or obese. It proposes a new objective to reduce the burden of obesity-related disease, such as a 10% cut in type 2 diabetes incidence by 2030, and asks that the ‘resilient systems’ objective be clarified. It recommends researchers to be named as partners in delivery, for investment in implementation science and evaluation, and for better referral pathways from primary care to surgical and medical interventions. Citing its opinion polling in 2013, 2015 and 2018 showing consistent public support for taxes on high-sugar and high-fat food and drink, it backs Strategy 1.3. Its central recommendation is a parallel Obesity Research Strategy, modelled on Action 28 of the Fifth National Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Plan, to set research priorities for each ambition.