Alcopops tax to be reintroduced

[Jovial Monk]

The background to all this is Tip stuffing up and putting an ultra-low tax (excise) on alcopops at the time the GST was introduced. This made alcopops a roaring success with massive binge drinking esp by young women.

So the original alcopops measure in the last budget aimed to correct this and tax it at the same level per unit of alcohol as straight spirits. The Fibs couldn't let Labor fix this appalling blunder by Tip and so opposed the measure leading to the professional clown Fielding siding with them in voting it down then crapping on, after making all the distillers dreams come true, how he "had broken the hold of the alcohol industry blah blah."

The excise figures showed that while the alcopops tax was in operation the total amount of alcohol sold declined with a marginal switch from the alcopops to straight spirits. So, yes it was a tax grab, but a tax grab that should have been in place since 2000! There should be high excise on alcohol and fags, and I am an enthusiastic supporter of SA's wine industry and was stupid enough to smoke for 16 years (gave it up cold turkey in '89, never smoked anything since apart from a little marijuana.) There should be a high excise since these two industries cause high public costs:- much public hospital space taken up with those that smoked themselves into heart disease, lung cancer etc, car accidents etc etc.

I would have liked to see the measure brought back in the form of a wider rationalisation of excise with a uniform excise per unit of pure alcohol on all forms of alcohol, beer wine spirits liqueurs apperetifs yadda yadda. So, a pure tax measure with some benefits in reducing total grog consumed. All the crap the clown is talking about, alcohol advertising at sports is a whole separate issue, but his little pride is now involved in this I guess.

The politics of it is that the clown and Turdbull are facing making a double dissolution trigger. A DD would see a Senate controlled either by Labor or a Senate controlled by Labor and Greens (with two of the Mr X faction present, probably at the expense of the SA Fibs.) There is no way in hell that Rudd would seek a DD just based on alcopops tax but if it is a trigger and a DD is called it will be one of the measures to be considered at the joint HoR+Senate sitting.

What would be a great DD is the National Broadband Network! Imagine a revamped iTunes and iMovie store available at gigabit speeds! Movies downloadable in minutes? Huge business benefits? Would be a braver Oppn Leader than the pretend polly Attabull who would really oppose it and even if he did Joyce and that NSW Nuts Senator have said they will vote FOR it anyway as they can see the real benefits it will bring to the country! They can claim it was all a Nuts idea if they want, wouldn't begrudge them that.

Would Attabull keep up his opposition to the NBN in these circumstances? Would he convince Joyce and Nash(?) to oppose it? A real sweet duzy of a DD would follow! Turdbull should "let himself be talked" into seeing the real benefits of the NBN. Why not? If, somehow, Attabull became PM after the 2010 election would he cancel the NBN with only 1/3 left to build? Doubt it.

So, what would be a good DD trigger?

[skippy]

It looks like the gov are going to call the Libs bluf, if the Libs vote against it they risk a dd that may well see them with less seats in the house and less senators, but they wont be thinking like that Turnbull thinks he'll be PM after next election no matter when it is.
The most interesting thing I think will be the minor parties and independents, the Greens have said they'll back the bill, that leaves the independents, now i reckon Fielding and mr x like being senators and I expect they will be the ones who fold, mr x has just arrived, he'd like a few years in the new digs, and Fielding is weak at best and lucky to be there.

[Jovial Monk]

Yeah, the alcopos thing won't be THE DD trigger but will be up after a DD election when both HoR & Senate sit in a joint sitting.

It is a msg to Fibs and to Fielding.

[JW Frogen]

Do not tred on my booze assholes!

This issue is worth killing and dying for; not nessisarily in that order.

[mantra.]

The background to all this is Tip stuffing up and putting an ultra-low tax (excise) on alcopops at the time the GST was introduced. This made alcopops a roaring success with massive binge drinking esp by young women

In this case Howard was right. It was taxed by the percentage amount of alcohol in the drink. Why should someone pay the same price for a 4% proof drink as they do a 20% proof drink? It's ridiculous.

But we're going to see a huge increase in the price of alcohol across the board. Rudd is determined not to let go of this tax and will reintroduce it in June along with substantial increases to casked & bottled wine, beer and spirits. He has said he will get this passed this time. Eventually it will only be the elite who can afford to have a drink - the peasants can look forward to just smelling it from the sidelines.

It is not alcopops that kills our young people, but badly mixed or straight spirits, wine and beer.

[Jovial Monk]

No, the excise is based on the amount of alcohol in a drink, it is only the rate is going up.

[Jovial Monk]

No, the very low excise on alcopops caused lots of young people to binge drink on them. Raising the rate per unit amount of pure alcohol to the same as that on spirits (same rate per unit of pure alcohol) caused a decline in all alcohol sales.

[mantra.]

No, the very low excise on alcopops caused lots of young people to binge drink on them. Raising the rate per unit amount of pure alcohol to the same as that on spirits (same rate per unit of pure alcohol) caused a decline in all alcohol sales.

Rubbish. That isn't true - the tax per unit on alcopops was triple or quadruple the amount per unit of straight wine, beer and spirits. You can't support the decline of drinking with any current figures.

[Jovial Monk]

No, the tax on the actual alcohol in an alcopops was merely brought into line with the tax on the actual alcohol in straight spirits and that should have been done at the time the GST was introduced. It was a 70% increase in the excise.

[mantra.]

This time you're wrong Monk. I'll dig up some figures later and display them. Just an example - a can of beer is about $2.80 with 5% strength. An alcopops can the same size at 4.5% proof is $5.00 - how do you figure that out? Why did beer sales jump 47% after the first month? How many 5% drinks do you get out of a bottle of bourbon costing about $25 compared to a can of bourbon at the same strength costing $5.00.

The alcopops tax is a sugar tax and nothing else.