Alcopops

It being Melbourne Cup day yesterday you probably started drinking at about 10 am and missed this story, but in another shock horror study researchers have found that we as Australians are drinking more than ever.

Contrary to some studies that began to indicate a decline in our habit, the National Drug Research Institute has found we’re apparently putting it away like Brendan Fevola at Brownlow night. This increase has been attributed to the amount of wine that we’re drinking, because apparently we’ve just worked out how much alcohol the stuff has in it.

One might think that such a finding would elicit some kind of response from the Federal Health Minister Nicola Roxon. Like an abusive PE teacher she frequently reminds us that we’ve been drinking too much, eating too much and we’re slob of a nation who will never make the athletics squad. It might even be an opportunity to look a bit further into something that every major health body in the nation and the Henry Review has championed: that is a volumetric tax on alcohol.

Continue reading "One tax you won’t hear the Government wine about" »

Whether you sit on the left or right side of the political spectrum, it is important the Australian public are aware of the coalition’s current agenda. It is an agenda which puts at risk everything this country has worked hard to achieve, including financial prosperity and security. It is an agenda which is self interested and is not in the best interests of this country.

The job of any opposition is to hold the government of the day to account and to stand up to legislation it believes is not in the best interest of the Australian people.

This is a job the Labor Party did extremely well towards the end of Howard’s reign as Prime Minister. However, since that fateful day on 24 November 2007, the Coalition has done nothing to help this country or hold the government to account.

Continue reading "How the Coalition gave up on the national interest" »

Sometimes you have to feel sorry for the Government. On the one hand they are constantly criticised for making laws that are cumbersome, unwieldy, hard to enforce and costly for business to comply with.

But on the other, no sooner is a law passed and no matter how plain the spirit and intention of that law, there is someone trying to find a loophole to get around it. This leaves the government having to close the loophole, followed by someone trying to get around the new law which, in turn leads to – well – cumbersome and unwieldy laws.
It’s also a process that often produces the opposite result to that intended. A classic example of the syndrome is the evolution of the United States military’s purchasing specification for biscuits in the 1980s.

Continue reading "The 26-page definition of a biscuit, and the future of beer" »

UPDATE 7:30 PM The Coalition has not agreed to a vote on the alcopops legislation in this sitting, so the earliest it can be approved is August. Yes the ridiculous dance of the alcopops goes on for another few months.

While the Opposition has been struggling with utegate it has quietly embarked on a big policy backflip.

Not because the policy itself is major but after almost a year of calling this 70% tax increase on alcopops the Great Satan the Opposition – or at least some of them - have decided to pass the tax.

Hopefully today there will be a vote on the alcopops tax and it will end this painfully long saga, whose ability to dominate national debate has merely highlighted how seriously we take getting pissed.

Leader of the National Party in the Senate Barnaby Joyce has told The Punch that no Nationals Party Senator will be voting for the tax and that one of his main considerations will be the Bundy drinking and producing voters of Queensland.

“No National Party Senator will be voting for the tax. That means abstaining or crossing the floor. We don’t want a bun fight over it, but we won’t vote for it.”

Continue reading "Not without my Bundy: the alcopops endgame" »

Australia has the highest rate of ecstasy use in the world. Frightening isn’t it? So what’s being done about it? Like many other policy issues, the PM declared war on drugs but it is more a phoney war than a real one.

Since being elected the Government has failed to take any significant action on this major health and criminal problem. Instead General Rudd and his loyal lieutenants have sent the troops into the goldmine by introducing a new tax on pre-mixed lolly water rather than sending them to the front line and fighting the real war on illicit drugs.

Continue reading "Too giggly on alcopops to tackle hard drugs" »