Australia's tobacco tax crushed smoking. Has it gone too far?
www.abc.net.au
A decade ago, illegal cigarettes made up about 10 per cent of sales in Australia. Now it's 80 per cent, so how did we get here?
    • Slashme@lemmy.worldEnglish
      6·
      28 days ago

      And if less than half as many people are smoking, that’s still a win in my book.

      • ryannathans@aussie.zoneEnglish
        45·
        28 days ago

        Sure just ignore the drive by shootings and burning buildings on your way down the street

        • tankiesmasher@aussie.zoneEnglish
          9·
          28 days ago

          If the market continues to trend downwards then illegal trade will fall as well until it’s below pre-excise levels.

          If the market plateaus with the illegal market still above pre-excise levels then I’d agree they should remove the excise and call the policy a failure… Well, maybe, you might be able to argue some marginal increase is worth a massive decrease in smoking, not 4x, but maybe 1.1-1.3x.