Good news \u2013 Australians are no longer smoking or drinking \u2026 <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Official numbers from the ABS on Tuesday show that our spending on smoking and drinking has dropped to a third of what it was as a share of total family spending just three and a half years ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That is unbelievable! Literally unbelievable \u2026 <\/p>\n\n\n\n
To be more exact, we got the taxing of tobacco spectacularly wrong. That meant our policies have subsidised the fastest increase in the revenue of organised crime that Australia has ever seen. (Even better for the criminals, the downside of getting caught with their illegal cigarettes is still mostly a fine rather than jail time).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And the black market that our policies created has made smoking way cheaper, meaning that many Australians \u2013 and especially low income Australians \u2013 are now smoking and vaping more rather than less I estimate the resultant hole in the federal tax take every year at $10bn This doesn\u2019t grab the headlines It should \u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
(Chris Richardson)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
That is unbelievable! Literally unbelievable \u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":264731,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6595,273,35],"tags":[17710,17711],"class_list":["post-264730","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alcohol","category-australia","category-breaking-news","tag-australian-bureau-of-statistics","tag-tobacco"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t