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NEWS: Industry revolts as federal health agency proposes ban on discount booze

thestudent14

thestudent14

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CHEAP wine will be banned under a federal health agency's plan to make drinkers pay at least $8-$10 for a bottle of booze.

The Federal Government's Australian National Preventative Health Agency will advise this week that a "floor price" and new taxes be calculated as a way to make alcohol dearer.

The prohibition plan to stop cheap drunks binging on discount drinks - including cask wine and cleanskins - has delighted health groups but sparked an alcohol industry revolt.

Consumers who drink cheap wine are not all drunks, industry groups have told the agency, and not everyone can afford an expensive tipple.

But the agency found pricing is "recognised as one of the most effective measures to reducing alcohol-related harm".

It has found "strong community support" to change the existing alcohol tax system, so that wine would be taxed on the basis of its alcohol content rather than its price.

"These changes would have the effect of establishing a floor price for alcohol," the agency's report, to be published within days, states.

It now wants the Federal Government to commission economic modelling to assess the impact of a minimum price or higher taxes on consumers and industry.

It says the average Australian drinks 10 litres of pure alcohol each year - equal to about 70 litres of wine or 250 litres of beer - while one in five adults and teenagers drink at levels that cause long-term harm to their health.

The Wine Federation calculates the price of cask wine would treble to $47.40, and the cheapest wine would cost $8.40 for a bottle of white or $9.60 for a red.

And, it warns, that pensioners and low-income families will pay the price of any prohibition on cheap drinks.

"They could lose one of their affordable luxuries in life," Wine Federation chief executive Paul Evans said.

"For the pensioner who might buy a cask of wine with their cheque every fortnight to share with their bingo buddies, this will make it completely unaffordable for them."

The Australian Medical Association is pushing the plan to stop young Australians getting drunk on discounted grog.

"You can get a four-litre cask of wine for as little as $10 and that encourages people to drink more because it's so cheap," AMA vice-president Geoffrey Dobb said.

The Australian Hotels Association has told the health agency's inquiry that pensioners are the biggest drinkers of cask wine and would be "hardest hit" by minimum pricing.

"All consumers will bear financial pain and reduced living standards," it told the inquiry.

Woolworths - Australia's biggest retailer of alcohol - told the agency that a minimum price would "significantly disadvantage the vast majority of Australians who consume alcohol in a moderate and responsible manner".

The agency will seek more public feedback on the proposal this week before making final recommendations to federal Mental Health Minister Mark Butler in December.
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http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/...n-discount-booze/story-fndo1z0b-1226494990848

This shit makes me mad >.<
 
Now I don't really drink wine except on dates or when I am out having a nice dinner. However, anything that makes alcohol more expensive in this country pisses me off. Wine is about the only affordable thing available. Beer is ridiculously expensive in comparison to most other countries. In the US you can almost buy a slab for the price of a six pack here. Not to mention the prices at bars. I went out and got a pint of Coopers at a bar on the weekend. $11! fucking ridiculous. I spent $120 just on drinks on friday night and I drank a 6 pack before I went out too in a effort to try and save money. I swear just a quietish night of drinks with friends is costing me $50 on average and I am drinking beer.

Anyway point is that alcohol is already far too expensive and people binge drink in every country, so it is not the uniquely Australian problem. Sorry about the prices mods, I imagine it is ok for alcohol prices.
 
Yeah I don't drink wine either. The problem I have with this is they say it's to target young people. Firstly not many young people drink wine to get drunk. Goon / cask wine, occasionally. But definitely not as the normal week to week drink to get drunk on. Their are several alcoholics who come into my workplace regularly for wine, I don't think this will affect them either, alcoholics will put their alcohol first, and their food and other essentials second. They will still buy the wine at the cost of other essentials making them less healthy. I'm also sceptical the way they grade success of tax's on alcohol, they say that the overall consumption of alcohol has decreased since the tax's increased over the past few years. But the target is meant to be people getting drunk, I see as many drunks, binge drinkers and violence on the streets at ever. So I question the level of success this has had. I suspect that it has hit Mid aged people more heavily, my Mum for example enjoys a bundy or two at the end of a night, but in the last few years she has cut back purely because of the price, I suspect this has happened across the board to alot of families who could afford a drink or two but now see it as too much of an expense to do daily or weekly.

But for teenagers / young adults I don't see a change, I see people drinking as much as ever it just leaves them with less cash. I have no problem with this, I don't see being drunk as a dangerous activity as much as a lot of policitcal and police people do. I see the violence it causes but I see it as extremeley minimal compared to the vast amount of drunk people we have in this country on more then a weekly basis. In Melbourne their are night clubs that go late in to the morning that are always packed every night of the week (except wednesday AFAIK). The ultimate question being, will this tax reduce violence and health issues among young people. I don't see how it can, true I've had some wild drunk nights on Goon Bags for next to no cash, but had Goon not been an option, I simply would've paid a bit extra and got a bottle of something straight instead. The people this tax will hit is not the people it's proposed to. I think it's unfair to put such a ridiculous tax that will ruin several alcohol company's. No one is going to buy goon bags for $47 that used to cost $10, it will cripple company's that have done nothing wrong.
 
thestudent14 said:
Yeah I don't drink wine either. The problem I have with this is they say it's to target young people. Firstly not many young people drink wine to get drunk. Goon / cask wine, occasionally. But definitely not as the normal week to week drink to get drunk on. Their are several alcoholics who come into my workplace regularly for wine, I don't think this will affect them either, alcoholics will put their alcohol first, and their food and other essentials second. They will still buy the wine at the cost of other essentials making them less healthy. I'm also sceptical the way they grade success of tax's on alcohol, they say that the overall consumption of alcohol has decreased since the tax's increased over the past few years. But the target is meant to be people getting drunk, I see as many drunks, binge drinkers and violence on the streets at ever. So I question the level of success this has had. I suspect that it has hit Mid aged people more heavily, my Mum for example enjoys a bundy or two at the end of a night, but in the last few years she has cut back purely because of the price, I suspect this has happened across the board to alot of families who could afford a drink or two but now see it as too much of an expense to do daily or weekly.

But for teenagers / young adults I don't see a change, I see people drinking as much as ever it just leaves them with less cash. I have no problem with this, I don't see being drunk as a dangerous activity as much as a lot of policitcal and police people do. I see the violence it causes but I see it as extremeley minimal compared to the vast amount of drunk people we have in this country on more then a weekly basis. In Melbourne their are night clubs that go late in to the morning that are always packed every night of the week (except wednesday AFAIK). The ultimate question being, will this tax reduce violence and health issues among young people. I don't see how it can, true I've had some wild drunk nights on Goon Bags for next to no cash, but had Goon not been an option, I simply would've paid a bit extra and got a bottle of something straight instead. The people this tax will hit is not the people it's proposed to. I think it's unfair to put such a ridiculous tax that will ruin several alcohol company's. No one is going to buy goon bags for $47 that used to cost $10, it will cripple company's that have done nothing wrong.
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Agree completely student, just another selfish bullshit excuse to charge more money for something the Government can guarantee people will buy.
Not to mention Woolworths sell the most alcohol, and own a huge majority of the pokie machines. If you put it all together it's very clear the aim of the game is the same as anywhere, making as much money as possible.
 
Use of cannabis will increase along with crimes such as theft, burglary, robberies as a means to find the extra cash required to feed the alcohol addiction/habit. Things like drinking metho., huffing, petrol sniffing will increase.

Sounds like a well thought through plan to tax the poor while the rich swill their Grange, Champagne, Sherry and scoff at the plebeians.
 
I guess this will result in the premium wines rising in price to as to retain the price deferential from the cheapies at the bottle shop.
I rarely drink alcohol these days but when I do its usually a nice wine of some kind.

It will suck to be a teenager when this kicks in, goon of fortune will no longer be viable!
 
It will just shift cheaper alcohol to the black market *shrug*

The conservative plutocrats running the western world NEVER learn.
 
junkie skumbag said:
mate your fucked :p
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your not wrong mate :p cheap wine has been my savin grace for about 12 months now.. not cask wine, but cheap bottles

deadset, if this even has the slightest chance of happening, I'm stockin up on a few hundred dollars worth of the shit.. luckily there's enough sulphur added to last me a fair while!
 
The first thing I did when I moved out of home when I was 17 was buy a home brew kit and set up a large pot in a sunny but sheltered position. Are young people today really that useless that they haven't figured that one out yet?
 
yeh i gotta try me some home brew

liquor is expensive enough as it is, spent an easy 120 just to get pissed last time i was out...would have much preferred to use that money elsewheres
 
Busty St Clare said:
The first thing I did when I moved out of home when I was 17 was buy a home brew kit and set up a large pot in a sunny but sheltered position. Are young people today really that useless that they haven't figured that one out yet?
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I did the same 6 years ago when I was 17, I hadn't moved out of home though.
It's still very a common thing for people to do, but verses the time and patience involved, most of the time buying drinks is still the ideal option.
 
yeah it'll just make people go to spirits you could get a bottle of vodka for less than 40 bucks -_- everyone rember the Alcohopop tax everyone just turned to hard spirits when that came in
 
My understanding is they are wanting to put a minimum price on a standard drink, for example they would set this price at say $8/standard drink then price every form of alcohol at this price. So 46 standard drinks in a goon bladder would cost $X while 26 standard drinks in a spirits bottle would be price on the same scale. The reasoning is that most young people would have a limit to how much they can spend in a night and therefore how shit faced they get would be restricted less on how easily they could access cheap alcohol.
 
Busty St Clare said:
My understanding is they are wanting to put a minimum price on a standard drink, for example they would set this price at say $8/standard drink then price every form of alcohol at this price. So 46 standard drinks in a goon bladder would cost $X while 26 standard drinks in a spirits bottle would be price on the same scale. The reasoning is that most young people would have a limit to how much they can spend in a night and therefore how shit faced they get would be restricted less on how easily they could access cheap alcohol.
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godamn it they better not change the prices of my lovely lovely vodka!!
 
Oh well, it was time I started the home-brew kit up again anyway.

Alcohol is already ridiculously expensive now in Australia, even compared to say 7 years ago. I have no idea how college students will manage to stay drunk at this rate..... what a pity.
 
^ 7 years my local bottle-o had two four packs of an expensive mixed bourbon with a free esky perfect size for two four packs for $20.
That same company is now about $24 for one 6 pack and the alcohol percentage has dropped by about half a %.

=(
 
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