Counter-productive

I don’t usually imbibe but I have been known to have a pre-mixed vodka and some sort of softdrink, but on the weekend, that has just become a little more expensive with the price increasing by roughly 30% when the government increased the amount of excise payable on “alcopops” in an attempt to deter Australian teenagers, particularly girls, from binge-drinking. And now, to make sure there is an equitable excise on popular alcohol products, there’s talk that the Government is planning to increase the excise on beer and wine by 300%. Of course, this could just be a furphy released just before the 2008 Federal Budget so when the excise is increased by less than 100% we all breathe a sigh of relief because it wasn’t as bad as we thought it was going to be – and get on with it. Although perhaps not quite in the same way: an ad in The Daily Telegraph today notes that one chain of liquour stores will now not be stocking some RTD (ready-to-drink aka alcopop) products. It may be enough to drive some people to the hard stuff!