..... but those wimpy bastards who purport to govern us will only jig a little to avoid some obstacles in the road.
Back in 1987 our government (Labour) radically changed the Sale of Liquor Act. This change (or series of changes) totally changed the liquor drinking landscape even more than the movement away from 6 O'Clock closing in 1969. The deconstruction of import tariffs was an integral part of the introduction of GST and in the case of liquor meant that import quota was no longer necessary and the movement from % tax to ad-valorem tax changed the affordability of many liquor types, particularly fine wine.
This was not necessarily a bad thing. The problem is that when radical changes are made it is easier for other changes to coat-tail along. The coat-tail legislation that rapidly followed was : expansion of wine retail licenses; expansion of wine importers licenses; supermarkets selling wine; supermarkets selling beer; smaller format liquor licenses being created; expansion of on-premise licenses; extended operating hours; Sunday trading; home brewing and distilling allowances; lowering of drinking age; introduction of alcoholic sodas and RTD's etc. etc. All of the above is in no exact chronological order but I think you get the picture. Erosion of control and general slippage.
This is not unlike the gun control laws that up until the early 80's required every firearm (except shotguns) to be licensed. Some bright-spark (probably an accountant) in the police force suggested that the onerous and costly exercise of monitoring this could be circumvented by licensing the gun owner rather than the guns themselves. This, coupled with a similar stupid decision to allow semi-automatic weapons to be brought into the country (for hunting!) has led to the gun problems we are starting to face now. Also, some idiot (a National M.P. in this case) promoted importation of Pit-Bull Terrier dogs. Look at the problems we now have with these.
Now we have some more changes to The Sale Of Liquor Act looming. What is mooted is the drinking age be raised from 18 to 20 and the price of alcohol go up by an average 10% through increases in excise tax. It also recommends pubs and clubs be required to close by 4am and off-licences by 10 pm. Big deal! This sort of pathetic change might as well be no change at all. We all know that alcohol is a huge problem in this country. If we don't have enough data to use we should look at the UK which has undertaken similar changes and now faces tremendous social problems. Over there they regularly increase excise taxing and VAT but incremental increases are easily absorbed in both the commercial structure and public consciousness. They do not limit production of cheap liquor or trading hours.
Our suggested changes are following in the same footsteps. What we need to do is to: ban private production of alcohol (home brew beer and spirits - sorry Robert); increase drinking age to 20 for both on-premise and off-premise sales; increase excise tax on beer, wine and spirits to at least the proposed 50% (on the excise component) - hey I drink a lot of wine but am prepared to pay more for it; increase excise on RTD's and alcoholic sodas by at least 100% or ban their production outright; totally review new liquor licensing and set maximum quotas on numbers of outlets by population; seriously monitor supermarket discounting activity and set minimum levels to which they can promote beers and wines to; never allow supermarkets to sell spirits, spirit based products and fortified wines and to seriously police the shortcuts they try to take in this area; lower the drink driving levels; cut back on opening hours (4AM is ridiculous this should be at most 1.30) and last but not least, not allow our school teachers to imbibe alcohol in any form, especially Chardonnay.
If we don't make these changes now it will become more and more difficult in the future and the social repercussions will be tremendous.
This was not necessarily a bad thing. The problem is that when radical changes are made it is easier for other changes to coat-tail along. The coat-tail legislation that rapidly followed was : expansion of wine retail licenses; expansion of wine importers licenses; supermarkets selling wine; supermarkets selling beer; smaller format liquor licenses being created; expansion of on-premise licenses; extended operating hours; Sunday trading; home brewing and distilling allowances; lowering of drinking age; introduction of alcoholic sodas and RTD's etc. etc. All of the above is in no exact chronological order but I think you get the picture. Erosion of control and general slippage.
This is not unlike the gun control laws that up until the early 80's required every firearm (except shotguns) to be licensed. Some bright-spark (probably an accountant) in the police force suggested that the onerous and costly exercise of monitoring this could be circumvented by licensing the gun owner rather than the guns themselves. This, coupled with a similar stupid decision to allow semi-automatic weapons to be brought into the country (for hunting!) has led to the gun problems we are starting to face now. Also, some idiot (a National M.P. in this case) promoted importation of Pit-Bull Terrier dogs. Look at the problems we now have with these.
Now we have some more changes to The Sale Of Liquor Act looming. What is mooted is the drinking age be raised from 18 to 20 and the price of alcohol go up by an average 10% through increases in excise tax. It also recommends pubs and clubs be required to close by 4am and off-licences by 10 pm. Big deal! This sort of pathetic change might as well be no change at all. We all know that alcohol is a huge problem in this country. If we don't have enough data to use we should look at the UK which has undertaken similar changes and now faces tremendous social problems. Over there they regularly increase excise taxing and VAT but incremental increases are easily absorbed in both the commercial structure and public consciousness. They do not limit production of cheap liquor or trading hours.
Our suggested changes are following in the same footsteps. What we need to do is to: ban private production of alcohol (home brew beer and spirits - sorry Robert); increase drinking age to 20 for both on-premise and off-premise sales; increase excise tax on beer, wine and spirits to at least the proposed 50% (on the excise component) - hey I drink a lot of wine but am prepared to pay more for it; increase excise on RTD's and alcoholic sodas by at least 100% or ban their production outright; totally review new liquor licensing and set maximum quotas on numbers of outlets by population; seriously monitor supermarket discounting activity and set minimum levels to which they can promote beers and wines to; never allow supermarkets to sell spirits, spirit based products and fortified wines and to seriously police the shortcuts they try to take in this area; lower the drink driving levels; cut back on opening hours (4AM is ridiculous this should be at most 1.30) and last but not least, not allow our school teachers to imbibe alcohol in any form, especially Chardonnay.
If we don't make these changes now it will become more and more difficult in the future and the social repercussions will be tremendous.
4 comments:
I'm only posting this because no one else has bothered.
Bin Hire
I totally agree with the post.
Nobody talks to me like that, except maybe my wife... but I'm devorced...maybe I'll take that comment and give it some serious thought.
Tom
"What we need to do is to: ban private production of alcohol (home brew beer and spirits - sorry Robert)"
Yeah right great idea. This isn't the 20's Pete. The few people that go to the trouble of making home brew are not the ones out rampaging on the streets and littering the parks and streets with cans and bottles.
First target the real problem ...people that make and sell dope and other mind bending drugs. They are the perias that suck the innocent in, pay no taxes, and ruin families.
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