Everything old is new again, and when it comes to harmful vice, there is almost certainly nothing new under the sun.
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The moral flurry that followed the rise and rise of alcopops a decade ago resulted in a unified voice from health experts on the need for preventative steps and in turn coerced the industry into adopting an ‘alcopop tax’ to curb the worst excesses that such sweet RTDs were having on the young.
How much it curbed drinking has been debated, but teenagers with a thirst will always find a way.
A decade on, one tax hurdle is no match for an inventive industry that can find any loophole and an even more cunning market that is adept at finding the cheapest in anything.
The health effects become even more acute when the objective by a certain contingent of underpaid youngsters is simply to “get trashed”.
Fairfax Media has recently highlighted the newest craze in this trend with a story on the rise of cheap and potent ciders, exemplified by products such as Little Fat Lamb.
Nominally called cider, these products come under the Wine Equalisation Tax, so cost a lot less. Their sweet, low-cost, high-booze nature (8 per cent in a 1.25-litre bottle, or more standard drinks than a bottle of wine) and packaging are a particular temptation for the young binge drinker.
The problem is in a labyrinthine and, some would argue, archaic taxation system on alcohol that has a different set of taxes for spirits, beer and wine.
The latter has the WET which is price based, so it increased proportionally to the price, like the GST, but not the alcohol.
So in effect there is far less tax on a cheap bottle of wine – about $1.45 on a $5 bottle – than there is on a premium bottle.
In short, there is no tax incentive to buy less but better quality alcohol. The tax anomaly extends to all wine products and there has been some disquiet by health authorities on the preponderance of $2 bottles of wine, but generally the marketing and taste of wine do not appeal to the young.
The answer to the problem would appear to be in a long demanded overhaul of the alcohol taxation system based around units of alcohol, or as health authorities would argue, relative to the units that do the damage.
At the same time, like a minimum unit price, it might act as a quantity deterrent for the young. In a decade hence will we still be wondering where this revision is at?
