Unbeleivable, that the govt can sit on a $20B surplus and stashes away $40 B plus of our hard earned money with absolutely no idea of what to spend it on and get no condemnation. No general outrage from the public and media except from some semi naked pensioners(has that even happened b4?, anyway who cares about them right?). Why the extra taxes when your sitting on a motza already after allocating an even bigger motza to spend on anything you like but you still have no idea of what you need let alone want to to spend the money on?

This non-vintage sparkling wine is crafted from Chardonnay and Pinot Noir sourced from South-Eastern Australia.

The only real comparison being the number of standard drinks per bottle. The Yellowglen Pink Piccolo is 200ml and the Bacardi 350ml. Break down the relative alcohol by volume – wine 11% and mixer 5%. In standard drinks terms, the wine – 1.73 standard drinks. The mixer – 1.38. 35% of a standard drink’s difference. Less than 60ml of the ‘Pink’ more.
It’s patently clear that Conservatism is still desperate for anything to score off.

At any rate, the tax is pretty easily supportable – if we must tax anything, let’s tax things that are known to cause externalities.

What the Liberals could be doing productively is pointing out that raising taxes on things like alcopops and luxury cars should be done in tandem with abolishing taxes like stamp duty that are highly inefficient. Now that we Labor governments in every state, it would seem a good time to coordinate such a change. And of course once some sort of emissions trading scheme is introduced there should be much further scope for reducing inefficient and damaging taxes, including some the lower income tax brackets.

…on December 2, 1996, [Dr Nelson] railed in the House of Representatives about a $4 alcopop called Kahlua Bandido. Such products were clearly marketed to young people, he lectured at the time, were attractive to under-age drinkers, and glamorised alcohol abuse among those engaged in binge drinking. They were “hardly conducive” to meeting the objective of educating teenagers about the dangers of excessive drinking.

Hardly the best position from which to launch into a rant about the government using the problem of binge drinking as an excuse for a cynical tax-hike.

Reality:

“The Federal Government’s tax on so called ‘alcopops’ is likely to have only a minimal impact on teenage binge drinking according the researchers.

Taxes on pre-mixed alcoholic drinks have increased by around 70 per cent, making them to $1.30 more expensive, in a bid to curb binge drinking.

Professor Abbott-Chapman says more needs to be done to address the problem.

“The effects are likely to be marginal unless they are linked to a widespread range of community and family programs which tackle some of the problems of social and educational engagement or disengagement,” she said.

Which is exactly what Nelson suggested last night.

Quiggin: “Having put the richest man in Parliament in as Shadow Treasurer they now intend to fight the government on the issue of a tax on luxury cars.”

Having put the richest ever prime minister in The Lodge, Labor now intends to throw thousands of people out of work and bundle hundreds of thousands into a second-rate hospital system.