Taxing alcopops is one of Tory ideas designed to stop youth drinking. “They’ve done this kind of thing in Germany and Australia and it has had dramatic effects,” George Osborne told Andrew Marr last March. Just how dramatic is now clear, with the evidence now in from Australia. Jacking up pre-mixed drink prices by 70% cut their consumption by 30%, but pushed bottled spirit sales up by 46% as kids mixed their own. And – surprise, surprise – the people pour far more generous measures than they were getting with the Bacardi Breezers. Result: a sharp 10% hike in the amount of alcohol consumed in Australia, the precise opposite of what was planned.
But there is some consolation for its government. The extra boozing means some A$600,000 a month extra in duties. This report in The Australian newspaper has all the tragicomic details. It’s such a shambles that the Australian Senate may now overturn the Rudd administration’s disastrous idea. As I say in my News of the World column today, it’s further proof that the law of unintended consequences is one politicians never fail to pass.
P.S. The Australian tax was introduced Rudd’s May 08 budget, so it’s unclear what “dramatic effects” Osborne was referring to in March. It gives a worrying insight into the quality of research. They’re so, so lucky Labour is in too much disarray to make this or any other point.
Comments