Well they say 25% tonight, which they equate to $2.16 on a pack of 30.
Where do they buy their fags?
My pack of 30 costs about $13.60 usually, so that will be a rise of $3.40, taking them to $17.00.
Geez, I said I would quit if they hit $20, but I think I may try again now, it is getting silly.

Definition of a ciggy is a tube with a fire at one end and a fool at the other.

'nother industry the leftards want to bugger up totally.

Quote:


http://www.theaustralian.com.au/politics/big-tobacco-to-fight-rudds-cigarette-pl...

guess whose money  kruddy will use to defend his arrogant inept idea?
yep - YOURS, sucker

The little weasel Krudd backed away from his " most morally important issue of our time" ETS and like the sulky brat that he is, has had to reinvent a new ETS.

Mark II is, Extra Tax on Smokers.

The hype that has been built around the costs to the community smoking incurrs is a fallacy and was proved so many years ago.

About 15 years ago, in an effort to prove the health Nazi's point, the Victorian government commisioned a study into the costs of smoking to the community.
Government employed doctors and statisticians were put to work to come up with a report that proved the point.
The report was never released because the findings were a direct contradiction of the desired outcome.

The report did however leak, as all good reports tend to and many retailers got a copy.

The report found that in an average smokers lifetime he/she will pay by way of excise, state levy fees and other government imposts that are exclusive to smokers, about four times the amount that medical care for specifically smoking related illnesses were then likely to cost till end of life.

At the time of the report the SLF (state levy fee) was at 20% in addition to all other government charges.
By the time the federal government took over the state's rights to charge this tax, the SLF rate was 105%.
When the feds took over GST was also added to the cost and the total taxes, excise, fees and any other government imposts meant that 83% of the total wholesale cost of a packet of cigs was govt impost.
The feds then made it illegal to produce those figures, even for the trade.

It is worth bearing in mind, the taxes levied on tobacco are very exclusive taxes aimed at smokers only.
The government rakes in close to 10 billion a year from these exclusive taxes and if all smokers quit tommorrow, guess who is going to be making up the shortfall in govt revenue.

If anyone doubts the veracity of the report findings then think about this;
The two principle killers of smokers are lung cancer and coronry heart disease.
If you get lung cancer you are dead inside 12 months and if it is heart disease you are likely to drop dead with a heart attack.

The cost of morphine for a cancer patient until the lethal dose is administered is negligable as is the cost of an autopsy for someone who drops dead with a heart attack.

Just as Krudd's idiot insulation batt scheme has destoyed many legitimate instalation and batt manufacturing businesses along with approx 6,000 jobs nationally, this BS is likely to cost multiple more jobs and destroy many more businesses.

tbc/  

/cont;

The health care cost crisis and the fallacy of the magic tax bullet on smokers will inevitably bite everyone on the ass.
Wether or not people are able or even willing to figure out why their ass hurts is not something that inspires confidence at the moment.

To provide further example of the fallacy discovered in the Vic govt report mentioned above consider this.

My Father was a very fit and healthy man who never drank or smoked in his life but at the age of 72 developed Parkinson's disease.
He passed away at 83 years of age after spending the last five years of his life in a nursing home, recieving 24/7 care.

Parkinson's as well as other diseases of aging such as dementia and Alzheimers all end up with roughly the same symptoms but people who contract these diseases regularly live for many years, often in a vegative state, at staggering daily costs to the health system.

In the home my father was in there were approximately 50 beds and most of those places were taken up with people who were very long term patients.
Visiting him, I was only aware of one patient who was there for smoking related emphysema, relying on oxygen.
That person was not there very long before they passed away.

I would invite all members of this forum to go and visit a high dependancy nursing home and discover for yourselves the veracity of what I am saying.

A talk to a doctor or nurse in a more candid moment will also reveal what many think but will not say in the public arena.
Most I know and have talked to will privately, if not advocate, will at least understand those who advocate voluntary euthanasia.
One Doc I know very well remarked (joking, I think) how much less the the cost burden would be if we all fell off the twig at age 75.
A bit Logan's runish but cold economics would agree.

The far, far more effective way of improving the health care budget would be to slash the bureaucracies that have in the last 30 years or so embedded themselves within the health system.
A visit to any hospital in the country would reveal a shiny arse public service component that exceeds the numbers of patients and medical staff.
These quangos are expert at creating their own little kingdoms hidden behind ever increasing mountains of rules, regulations and paper warfare whilst drawing very nice salaries.
It comes as no surprise, these are the same people who loudly advocate taxing smokers more.

It is telling that I as a retailer pay my tobacco retailers licence fee to the health dept rather than state revenue.
My tobacco licence fee, distinct from my business licence fee, has risen 2,300% in the last three years.

Krudd and his spin merchants have very easily identified how easy it is to scam a society asleep on the couch and completely willing to allow the nanny state to embrace us into a smothering death.

Just heard something on the radio.
Krudd is going to force cigarette companies to sell/manufacture cig packets in his own image, ie, bland, dull, confusing and uninspiring that will achieve nothing.

Pissed off!