I suspect the high tax no longer has much of a harm reduction/uptake suppression utility, and that the Aus government secretly knows this, but they are hopelessly addicted to the revenue so will enact overbearing new laws to protect the income stream.
The reasonble approach is to wean nicotine users off black market product by removing the price disparities. The only way to do that is by accepting a much lower tax intake than the current arbitrary, punitive one (perhaps VAT * 1.5 or 2?)
I remember the Australian government crowing about their world-first plain packaging initiative many years ago. Talk about fighting the last war lol
I suspect the high tax no longer has much of a harm reduction/uptake suppression utility, and that the Aus government secretly knows this, but they are hopelessly addicted to the revenue so will enact overbearing new laws to protect the income stream.
Well that depends…at what point is the revenue stream under threat because of the significant price disparity? My understanding is that it has dropped significantly, which one would imagine is a cause for concern if revenue is a key consideration.
Its pretty notable that almost all the smokers I know have moved over to black market imports. $2+ per cigarette means that a pack of black markets charged at $1 per cigarette make it far to tempting, and there is a big enough profit margin on them that people will bring them in to the country despite enforcement actions.
They haven’t been able to stop weed, or cocaine, or heroin or ice what makes them think they will be able to stop tobacco products, especially when there is a legal version of cigarettes and e-cigarettes out there that at first glance can be hard to tell apart from the illegal ones.
I also heard that there is a tobacconist who couldn’t get a license in my old home town, so they pivoted to selling novelty products above board and illegal cigarettes under the counter. The council basically posed them the option of stay in business and break the law or shut down.
The tax on cigarettes is basically just racketeering; the government extracting a cut from drug addicts. The tax went well beyond the burden on the healthcare system a long time ago, and they don’t even use it on the healthcare system, so fuck 'em.
They were stupid to think they could increase it forever without a black market filling the gap. Neolibs have learned nothing.
Well that is their special skill, and their happy place.
Around where I live, three tobacconists have been firebombed in the last couple of years, and it seems to coincide with regulating vapes and the rise of chop chop…
I would love a politician to try explain why they were so committed to killing vaping, but ok to continue to allow the sale of cigs, given they are both a heath risk
I would love a politician to try explain why they were so committed to killing vaping
I imagine at least one of the arguments would be that vaping was marketed in a way that appealed to younger children and teenagers.
I would love a politician to try explain why they were so committed to killing vaping
Narrator: The main reason was ego
