May 2008 Archives

Class, please give a big warm welcome to the latest lifeofsuch 'stooge of the month' - the Hon. Kevin Rudd.

Now when K-Rudd isn't busy campaigning with catchy US style election slogans, masquerading as Tin Tin, or being married to a horse, Kevin does like to paint himself as a champion of the regular Aussie battler.

Last year after making a big fuss over EVIL big businesses exploiting battling workers, Rudd was left red faced when his wife's multi million dollar company was caught out for the exact same thing... Oops.

Now that the country's attention has turned to youths binge drinking on alcopops, Rudd has again put on his moral crusader underpants and jumped into the ring - by increasing taxes on so called 'alcopops' - premixed alcoholic drinks - to curb binge drinking right? One problem.

The budget increases the taxes on popular mixed drinks by 70% to 'slow consumption', but someone forgot to tell the nerds with calculaters in the budget room because in the very same budget the government actually forecasts an INCREASE in the sales of these drinks.

Has K-Rudd been caught out spin doctoring another federal tax-binge?

As an aside, I think that an even tax should be applied across the entire spectrum of alcoholic beverages - one that taxes each drink proportionate to the number of 'standard drinks' each product contains... rather than taxing some products at 6%, and other popular ones at 70%... more bloody revenue raising.