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December 11, 2024 4 mins

Being overweight or obese has overtaken smoking as the top risk factor contributing to health problems in 2024, new data shows.

The Australian Burden of Disease Study 2024 estimates that Australians lost 5.8m years of healthy life due to living with illness and injury - or premature death.

While smoking has previously been the lead factor contributing to poor health later on in life - being overweight has since beaten it out.

Australian correspondent Murray Olds says experts are calling for sugar taxes and less marketing of junk food to children.

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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Let's go to Murray Old's Australia correspondence. Murray, great to
have you on house. That P and G NURL news
going down.

Speaker 2 (00:06):
Look, it depends who you listen to. Will be some
of the opposition side as they are. It's a dreadful
waste of money. But the way the government's framing it,
it's a six hundred million dollar investment in regional security.

Speaker 3 (00:18):
The way it's being spun.

Speaker 2 (00:19):
Here was a brand new rugby league team from twenty
twenty eight from Papua New Guinea, no name, no jumper yet,
but rugby league. I've been up to P and G
a couple of times and rugby league is the number
one sport, no doubt about. It was a great deal
of support across the country for the game. They know
all the players, they know all the teams down in Australia.
But the deal, the six hundred billion dollar deal is conditional.

Speaker 3 (00:42):
Ryan.

Speaker 2 (00:42):
P and g's entered what's called a Parallel Security Agreement
on Strategic Trust between Australia and Papua New Guinea. It's
clearly designed to stop China. No one's saying that Albany's
not saying that Nora is Marape, the Prime Minister of
P and G. But it's all about stopping China gettingtrategic
foothold in the region. The deal ties future Papua New

(01:04):
Guide governments to this agreement, meaning a rugby league team
could be dumped if Papa New Giddy decides to cuddle
up to Beijing. I can't see Beijing dropping six hundred
million dollars in a rugby league team. Albanese says the
deals about sport, economic development and of course in brackets security.

Speaker 3 (01:21):
So he's making no apologies.

Speaker 1 (01:22):
Yeah, interesting but hard one to sell though. I'd imagine
come election time and no doubt Dustn't will be making
hay while the sun shines on that one, is he?

Speaker 2 (01:30):
Well, they play rugby league in Queensland as well, and
you know the way Albanese is trying to frame it,
it's all about regional security. It's also about expanding, you know,
soft cultural power, if you like soft diplomatic power in
the form of a game that P and G absolutely adores.
Unemployments down, It is down, yeah, and it's kind of

(01:54):
basically caught everybody by surprise. Unemployment in November fell to
three point nine percent, with twenty six thousand brand new
jobs created. It was four point one percent in October
and it was supposed to go up according to all
the economists.

Speaker 3 (02:08):
But it's the lowest rate since March.

Speaker 2 (02:10):
And this, of course ran will not help those people
who are hanging out for a cut and official interest rates.

Speaker 3 (02:16):
This is exactly what they didn't want.

Speaker 2 (02:18):
The Reserve Bank wants to see unemployment tick up a
bit because that will then take pressure off inflation as
long as inflation is The Reserve Banks made it very
clear inflation is the dragon that must be slay, and
you know, more people and more pay packets slashing around
on the economy is not going to rain.

Speaker 3 (02:39):
In inflation to any large degree at all.

Speaker 2 (02:41):
So it's just one of the factors the Reserve Bank
we're looking at in February.

Speaker 1 (02:45):
When the next meets some bloody, stubborn dragon. You've got
over there, isn't it, Hey, my work. Obesity has overtaken
Murray tobacco as the number one health risk in Australia.

Speaker 3 (02:56):
Yeah, it's the number one preventable health problem facing Australia.

Speaker 2 (02:59):
This the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare report that's published.

Speaker 3 (03:03):
It's twenty twenty four reports called Burden of Disease.

Speaker 2 (03:07):
And look, it's the leading risk factor over here is now.

Speaker 3 (03:13):
Being fat, being overweight. Obesity, it has overtaken tobacco.

Speaker 2 (03:17):
Tobacco smoking rates are being driven down over the last
twenty thirty years, you know, to the point where it
is quite frankly, it's rare to see people smoking. I mean,
sure people do keep smoking, but it's very rare compared
to you know, twenty or thirty years ago. So in
its place obesity and people are dying early from a
whole bunch of different diseases related to obesity. You've got,

(03:41):
you know, basic heart disease, if you're overweight, you know,
and nobody's exercising. That's the big problem eating unhealthy food.
There's no basically, you know, where's the stat I'm looking for?
Here we are five point eight million years of healthy
life have been lost because people are dying early from this.

Speaker 3 (04:01):
Obesity related diseases.

Speaker 2 (04:03):
The people out there looking out for this stuff, they're
saying we have to protect children from marketing of unhealthy foods.
That you know, tax on sugary drinks, well, you know,
no politician will back that, or no, they'll make drinks
more expensive. They want five star ratings on all packaged foods,
you know the ratings you see, you know, one to

(04:23):
five on cereal boxes and the like, improve how baby
and toddler foods are made and marketed. So there's a
whole bunch of things they'd love to see. Whether or
not the political class embraces these things remains to be seen.
But being overweight over here is a natural problem and
it's only getting bigger.

Speaker 3 (04:40):
Pardon the put.

Speaker 1 (04:40):
Yeah, goodness me, Murray, thank you very much for that.
Murray Old's are Australia corresponding. For more from Hither Duplessy
Allen Drive, listen live to news talks it'd be from
four pm weekdays, or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.
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