Two in three Australian adults are overweight or obese — and rates continue to rise. Excess weight is associated with type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, some cancers, sleep apnoea, osteoarthritis, and mental health challenges. The economic cost exceeds $11 billion annually. Yet obesity prevention and treatment are chronically underfunded and politically contested. Grant funding supports research, community prevention programmes, clinical treatment, and the advocacy needed to address what is one of Australia's most significant but least supported health challenges.
Scale
Disparities
Health consequences
Excess weight is a risk factor for:
- Type 2 diabetes (obesity responsible for >80% of T2DM cases)
- Cardiovascular disease
- Some cancers (endometrial, bowel, breast, oesophageal, kidney)
- Obstructive sleep apnoea
- Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease
- Osteoarthritis (particularly knee)
- Mental health conditions
Why obesity is politically contested
Obesity sits at the intersection of individual responsibility and structural/environmental determinants. Approaches that emphasise individual willpower and blame individuals for weight are not only ineffective but harmful. Evidence points to the food environment, physical activity environment, sleep, stress, and genetics as primary drivers — far more powerful than individual choice.
Department of Health
National obesity strategy — limited and contested:
- Healthy Food Partnership
- Physical activity guidelines
- Sugar-sweetened beverage discussions (highly contested by industry)
- Bariatric surgery through the public hospital system (limited access)
NHMRC
Research grants for obesity biology, prevention, and treatment.
Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF)
Precision nutrition, metabolic research, and treatment innovation.
State health departments
Heart Foundation
Diabetes Australia
VicHealth
The Sax Institute
Population health research including obesity prevention.
The George Institute for Global Health
Food policy, salt reduction, and obesity prevention research.
Cancer Council
Cancer prevention — obesity-related cancer prevention.
Childhood obesity prevention
Community-based prevention
Food environment
Clinical weight management
Indigenous obesity prevention
Pacific Islander communities
Very high obesity rates — culturally adapted approaches:
- Culturally appropriate physical activity programmes
- Community-led healthy eating
- Addressing social and cultural roles of food
Sleep and stress
Emerging evidence on sleep and stress as obesity drivers:
- Sleep health promotion (especially for shift workers)
- Stress management integration in weight management
GLP-1 agonist medications (semaglutide/Ozempic, tirzepatide/Mounjaro) have dramatically expanded pharmacological treatment options for obesity. This creates new funding questions:
- Access equity (expensive — not yet fully PBS-subsidised for obesity)
- Combination with behavioural support
- Long-term safety and maintenance
- Research into optimal use and selection
Structural vs. individual framing
Funders and evidence now strongly support structural approaches (food environment, built environment, policy) over individual behaviour change programmes alone. Applications that address systemic drivers of obesity rather than just individual willpower are more compelling.
Childhood priority
Childhood obesity prevention is a priority for many funders — habits formed in childhood persist, and intervening early is more effective than adult obesity treatment.
Equity focus
Rural, Indigenous, low-income, and Pacific Islander communities face the highest obesity burden and the least access to support. Equity-focused applications are compelling.
GLP-1 access
The new GLP-1 medications are transformative but expensive and inaccessible for many — applications addressing equitable access (particularly for high-burden communities) are timely.
Tahua's grants management platform supports public health funders and weight management organisations — with programme participant tracking, clinical outcome measurement, food environment data, and the reporting tools that help obesity prevention funders demonstrate their investment in healthier communities and reduced chronic disease burden.