Member Services
- Text Decrease
- Text Increase
- Print Page
Death and taxes (Sunday Herald Sun, letter to the editor)
31 January 2010.
Conventional wisdom is that a treasurer who raises taxes on beer and smokes is dead meat politically. This may hold for alcohol, but increased taxes on cigarettes is now a political winner.
When voters punished governments for increasing the taxes on cigarettes, most voters smoked — in the 1950s, around 70 per cent of men smoked. Fast forward to 2010 and about one in six voters smokes daily.
A recent Cancer Council survey showed that more than 60 per cent of smokers favoured a tax increase on cigarettes.
That leaves less than 7 per cent of the population who would be upset by an increase in tobacco taxes.
So such a tax increase would be welcomed by 93 per cent of Australians. What are you waiting for, Mr Swan?
Dr Harry Hemley, president, Australian Medical Association Victoria
Victorian Medical Directory
Quick Reference Links
Networks
Preferred Providers
Next
Prev