Month: August 2013

Thank You Smokers!

Lara
Thank You Smokers!




You’ve seen smoke free zones before – but when was the last time you saw a free smoke zone? Today’s National Thank You Smokers Day event in Brisbane would have been the first time for many. A group of volunteers in the Queen St Mall crowdfunded cigarettes to offer to adult smokers, and handed out fliers with information about the taxes on tobacco. Of course, the protest in no way promoted smoking or smoking-related products – the only promotion going on was of gratitude to smokers for their disproportionately huge…




Hilarious Satire: Fighting Smokers Our Taxing Duty

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Hilarious Satire: Fighting Smokers Our Taxing Duty




An excellent satire from New Zealand: We, Tariana Turia, Tribune of the People, duly and legally elected by a small proportion of a small proportion of those same people, do hereby pronounce and proclaim, we are appalled. And with the power vested in us as Associate Minister of Health for the realm of Aotearoa New Zealand, a position attained through political expedience rather than by any perception of merit, we shall act. Our subjects may recall that in the Year of our Lord 2011 we issued the “Wag That Finger…




How to Use Public Health to Control Everything

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How to Use Public Health to Control Everything




Via our good friend Dr Julie Novak at the IPA, this piece from Laissez Faire Club on How to Use Public Health to Control Everything  is a must read: Some extracts: And here is the rabbit in the hat: social justice. “Social justice,” writes Bernard Turnock, “is the foundation of public health.” Since social justice is a subjective notion, somebody has to decide what it is and what it requires. So public health experts naturally want to assume the role of the philosopher-king. In Plato’s utopia, the philosopher-king rules paternalistically and tyrannically…




Labor gov running out of ways to punish smokers

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Labor gov running out of ways to punish smokers




Siobhan Harris writes: Many youths have been bemoaning Rudd’s recently announced incremental tax grabs rises. Many cigarettes will cost almost a dollar each, which is sure to hit Gen Y’s particularly hard. Or so I thought. As we are often reminded, when one door closes, another door opens. This open door comes in the form of lucrative employment, the potential for social mobility and a community support network. It will bring all of us closer together. Yes, I’m talking about black market tobacco, obviously. I know what you’re thinking, it’s…




TELL YOUR MP: NO TOBACCO TAX HIKE!

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TELL YOUR MP: NO TOBACCO TAX HIKE!




  Join us and help stop Kevin Rudd slugging smokers with another tax hike! Under Kevin’s Plan, smokers will be charged an extra $5 a pack to help save him from his budget black hole. The fact is though – this will NOT raise more money. It will NOT help balance the budget. All this regressive tax will do is hurt already-struggling families, and help criminal tobacco smuggling syndicates Click HERE to get the facts and fill out our form below to tell your Member of Parliament: NO!   image…




Rudd’s Tobacco Tax Slug: The Facts

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Rudd’s Tobacco Tax Slug: The Facts




Here are the facts on Kevin Rudd’s desperate attempt to gouge smokers to cover up his budget black hole: FACT: The tobacco tax is one of the most regressive taxes in Australia, hitting already struggling poorest Australians hardest. FACT: It won’t raise any revenue. This is the mining tax fiasco all over again. FACT: Kevin Rudd promised his 2010 tobacco tax would raise an extra $5 billion. In reality, tobacco excise revenue fell FACT: Deloitte found that the 2010 tobacco tax hike caused the illegal tobacco trade to jump 29%,…




Media Release: Rudd Must Resist Calls To Gouge Smokers

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Media Release: Rudd Must Resist Calls To Gouge Smokers




The following release was issued prior to the announcement that the Rudd Government shall, in fact, be increasing the tobacco tax by a whopping 50%. Media Release Rudd Must Resist Calls To Gouge Smokers The Australian Taxpayers’ Alliance & MyChoice Australia today urged the Federal Government to resist pressure to hike tobacco taxes to plug the Federal Budget Black Hole. “Smokers can’t be made the scapegoat for the Federal Government’s budget failure” ” said Tim Andrews, Executive Director of the Australian Taxpayers’ Alliance. “Hiking the tobacco tax would be an…




Are You Serious, Kevin?

Lara
Are You Serious, Kevin?




Kevin Rudd is getting Serious About Smoking. Again. Destroying commercial intellectual property rights, restricting the actions of citizens in public and in private, distributing horrific imagery, and scouring hip pockets for loose change is not serious, apparently. Inflating the retail price of a three dollar good to over twenty dollars? That’s a serious fix. Today’s announced 12.5% tobacco excise hike each year for the next four years is a shameful reflection on an incompetent government who simply can’t handle a budget. The speed with which raising tobacco excise again springs…