Source: Health Coalition Aotearoa
Tamariki are paying the price for the decisions leaders are making to prioritise the profits of the food industry over cost-effective healthy food policies, say researchers.
A new benchmarking report finds the coalition government has made virtually no progress on food policies that would reduce non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and obesity among many benefits.
“Our panel of experts found very little has changed to policies that support tamariki to have healthy childhoods and fulfilling lives,” says lead author Dr Sally Mackay from Health Coalition Aotearoa and the University of Auckland.
The food policy benchmarking was carried out by large expert panels prior to elections in 2020 and 2023, with little progress made.
This is despite about 15 percent of years of life annually lost to disability or death in Aotearoa being attributable to obesity and unhealthy diets.
The expert panel used a formal evaluation tool, developed at the University of Auckland and used globally, to assess policies.
One of the worst areas for a lack of progress is junk-food marketing to children.
“I’m really concerned about the amount of marketing that children are exposed to throughout their day,” says Dr Kelly Garton, Waipapa Taumata Rau, University of Auckland senior researcher and Health Coalition Aotearoa food spokesperson.
“Studies from the University of Otago, where kids wear cameras throughout the day, found children see 68 unhealthy food ads a day compared with 26 healthy food ads.
This is just one of the policy areas where the panel of around 40 food researchers found little or no progress since the last election.
Meanwhile, new research finds 80 percent of New Zealanders, across the political spectrum, believe politicians should do more to create healthy food environments. See NZMJ, 28 August 2026.
“People across Aotearoa have voiced their concern. But unfortunately, it seems that private corporate interests being promoted within the Beehive are influencing policies in ways that are not in the best interests of the people and do not reflect what they want either,” Garton says.
The top policy recommendations from the panel of food researchers were:
- commitment to, and expansion of, the healthy school lunch programme
- restricting children’s exposure to food marketing
- a sugary drinks levy
- food composition targets, for measures like lowering salt and sugar
- healthy school food policies.
Most of these actions were proposed in 2020 and again in 2023.
The panel is also calling for a new national nutrition survey to inform policy-makers on what Kiwis are currently eating, and for the government to make a more nutritious version of Ka Ora, Ka Ako, Healthy School Lunches, permanently funded, particularly as increasing numbers of children experience material hardship.
Current and future Governments have the ability to level the equity gap for the one in five households with children where food sometimes or often runs out, Health Coalition Aotearoa food spokesperson Sande Mareroa-Gates says.
“Food policies are a powerful tool for improving wellbeing and advancing health equity for all,” Mareroa-Gates says.
“Under Te Tiriti o Waitangi, tino rangatiratanga is the right to self-determination,” she says.
“Whānau not only want to know about the evidence-based food policies in this new report on ‘Food environments in Aotearoa’, it is their right to know.
Health disparities in the likes of diabetes, obesity and cancer, are structural symptoms of food and economic insecurity, says Mareroa-Gates.
“Having access to kai that feeds our minds, nurtures our wairua and is equitable for all. Low-income whānau would prefer the option of affordable healthy kai for their whānau, but their income doesn’t allow them the luxury.
“There is a misconception that whānau who live day-to-day are unable to understand policies. When support is provided, they are actually a lot more articulate and thoughtful about this subject than we give them credit for,” Mareroa-Gates says.
Health Coalition Aotearoa encourages voters to vote for healthy and affordable kai and the policies that underpin better health.
- Read a PHCC Briefing on the Food Environments Policy Index 2026.
- Read a summary of the report: HCA-Food-EPI-2026-FINAL.pdf