Smart-cards, rather than the removal of GST, are the better way to help ensure families eat nutritious food, the Public Health Association Conference was told yesterday.
The suggestion follows Te Tai Tonga MP Rahui Katene saying she planned to introduce a private member's Bill to push for the removal of the 12.5% goods and services tax on fruit, vegetables, meat, fish, bread and dairy products.
But health economist Des O'Dea told delegates at the conference yesterday that researchers had considered both the removal of GST on healthy foods, and the use of a smart-card.
The team of public health researchers from the Universities of Auckland, Otago, and Canterbury, and Te Hotu Manawa Maori, was commissioned last year by the Ministry of Health and the Health Research Council to identify ways of helping families get enough nutritious food.
They found strong arguments against removing GST on food.
"To do that would destroy some of the simplicity and efficiency of the current tax," Mr O'Dea said.
"It would also be a poorly targeted instrument for addressing food insecurity because households at all income levels would benefit."
A smart-card system was used in the United States for the issue of food stamps.
Mr O'Dea told the Otago Daily Times the card would work like a debit card, with an account that would be topped up, perhaps monthly.
Users would be able to buy only healthy foods with the card.
The amount of subsidy could be changed readily, and could effectively target subsidies to foodstuffs of good nutrient quality.
Targeting the subsidy at lower income families such as beneficiaries, recipients of community services cards and those receiving Working for Families assistance was the cheaper option.
"The research found that for a subsidy on fruit and vegetables the cost per life saved was $US1.3 million.
"This compares favourably with the dollar value of a single life, which in the United States is estimated to be worth between $4 million and $9 million.
"If an equivalent result holds here, then a smart-card would make good economic sense for New Zealand."
