Cr Terry Grange raised the issue at a meeting on Wednesday.

It comes after the Greens called for a blanket 20 per cent sugar tax on soft drinks to tackle obesity.

The move would add about 20 cents to the price of Coca-Cola cans.

However, Cr Grange said a sugar tax would not work and Yarriambiack council needed to lobby for change.

“Yarriambiack has been declared the fattest shire in Victoria, so we need to lead the charge on this,” he said.

“A sugar tax is just nonsense - it’s not serious and is just about revenue raising.

“If we put the price of soft drink up, people will still buy it.

“We are not addressing the issue at all.

“The government has to make changes to health and one way to do it is to put legislation in place that will limit the amount of sugar in drinks.”

Heart Foundation statistics released in August showed 30 per cent of Yarriambiack residents drink soft drink daily.

The state average is 16 per cent.

The foundation also found 75 per cent of males were overweight or obese and 60 per cent of females. 

Cr Grange said diabetes was running rampant in the shire.

“This is a perfect opportunity to give serious consideration to our health,” he said.

“If companies can only put so much sugar in drinks, because it’s the law, it will make a difference.”

Cr Grange said council should lobby politicians about the issue.

“We need to become leaders in this because if we just start taxing sugar, we are not going to achieve anything.”

Western Victoria Primary Health Network medical adviser Jane Opie said a sugar tax would have positive effect on consumers. 

“Potent sugar solutions such as soft drink were not a natural food,” she said.

“We already have taxes with tobacco and alcohol prices and it is proven that as prices go up, consumers go down.

“The UK has already introduced a sugar tax.”

Dr Opie said she hoped any tax on sugar would go into healthy food or exercise programs or used to subsidise the cost of fruit and vegetables.   

A spokesman for Rural Health Minister Fiona Nash said there was zero chance the federal government would go near the idea of a sugar tax because it was a lazy solution to a complex problem.

However, both the Australian Labor Party and the Coalition have agreed to raise tobacco excise by 12.5 per cent a year for four years in an attempt to raise revenue and discourage smoking.

Cr Grange said charging $40 a pack for cigarettes would not deter people from smoking and it would be a similar result a the sugar tax.

The World Health Organisation also advocates a sugar tax in its report Ending Childhood Obesity, citing the potential to change the buying decisions of low-income earners.