The purported reason for the tax is to discourage people smoking. If the unintended effect is supporting criminals providing an unregulated product, then obviously the tax is not satisfying it’s objective.
There’s a point at which more tax is just more punishment for addicts.
It’s similar to increasing interest rates to curb inflation, it’s effective up to a point, but increases beyond that fail to control behavior.
Nicotine addiction is complex, like any form of substance abuse. The high taxes in Australia have done a great job of reducing the harm, but if we’ve reached the point where more tax doesn’t reduce harm then we need to consider other measures.
Not that obviously, the article cites data from Canada. The research states:
There is strong evidence that reduction of tobacco taxes to combat smuggling had an adverse impact on smoking rates in youth.
Given how many articles I see popping up on sky about this and that most of this BS seems to come from Pauline, pretty sure we can chalk this policy discussion up to the tobacco industry.
Lol. Probably the one that you’re thinking about. You might not have heard the classical tribute song that was made in her honour, “Fish And Chip Bitch From Ipswich”.
Yes, obviously.
The purported reason for the tax is to discourage people smoking. If the unintended effect is supporting criminals providing an unregulated product, then obviously the tax is not satisfying it’s objective.
There’s a point at which more tax is just more punishment for addicts.
It’s similar to increasing interest rates to curb inflation, it’s effective up to a point, but increases beyond that fail to control behavior.
Nicotine addiction is complex, like any form of substance abuse. The high taxes in Australia have done a great job of reducing the harm, but if we’ve reached the point where more tax doesn’t reduce harm then we need to consider other measures.
Not that obviously, the article cites data from Canada. The research states:
Given how many articles I see popping up on sky about this and that most of this BS seems to come from Pauline, pretty sure we can chalk this policy discussion up to the tobacco industry.
LOL. I agree that Hanson’s position does sound like she’s got tobacco lobbyists up her ass. God she’s trashy.
That said, that doesn’t really contradict what I’ve said, both can be true.
I don’t think we should halve excise or whatever, just stop the regular increases of theyre no longer effective.
She the one that looks straight out of a 70s soap opera? (Sorry, from the UK and don’t know the names of your national scumbags 💛)
Lol. Probably the one that you’re thinking about. You might not have heard the classical tribute song that was made in her honour, “Fish And Chip Bitch From Ipswich”.
That might be fair. Could argue that banning like the UK did or funding a way to crackdown on the black market might be better.
It isn’t really clear from the article if increases are still reducing numbers or not (even if it’s at a reduced rate).