Alcopops are dead hurruh!

So the alcopops tax got rejected in the senate last week.  I'm so happy that one of the stupid things the government has tried to brought in has actually been stopped.  There really seemed to be little evidence that the alcopops tax was doing anything to curb binge drinking, but it was providing a nice revenue stream for the government.

So I could rant on this at length, and I might just do that in a later post, but I just wanted to jot something down before i forget.

Was watching late line the other day after the senate rejected the tax, and Julia Gillard was on to spin how awful this was.  She made the point:  (read whole transcript here http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/content/2008/s2520098.htm )

"What the Liberal Party has voted for in the Senate today is to return $300 million to the distillers"

This is a blurring of the point i feel.  The senate refused to pass the tax because it didn't do what it set out to do, which was curb binge drinking.  So the tax they have been collecting up till now has been illegally collected, and so yes it should be returned.  The government should not get to keep it!  Just because they don't like the distillers, it doesn't give them a right to tax them illegally.