Benjamin Haslem
As most Australian-based readers of this blog are aware, the recently-elected Rudd Labor government has increased the tax levied on alcopops or ready-to-drinks (RTDs) by a whopping 70 per cent. You know the ones, vodka mixed with what tastes like lemonade, so teeny boppers can get smashed quickly and cheaply.
The Government claims the measure is designed to combat binge drinking amongst teenagers and young adults. As a form of policy it doesn't get much cruder. And it's worth $3bn annually to the Government's budget bottom line.
A straw poll of one is meaningless but it is interesting to note that my local bottle shop, a chain store owned by the Woolworths supermarket juggernaut, has cleared a not insignificant amount of shelf space of reasonable quality wine bottles and stocked it with very cheap white wine casks.
Some space in the cooler section, alongside the RTDs, has also been filled with the el cheapo casks, which retail at $9.99 for four litres. Call me a wine snob but yuck!
When Rudd introduced the tax his critics immediately pointed out the obvious: the kids and young adults will simply buy a product that's less expensive but delivers the same result, inebriation.
Seems Woolies, like any business responding to anticipated shifts in demand, has obliged.
So what will those blue collar workers (the ones who abandoned the Howard Government for being out of touch and who love a premixed can of Bundie Rum and Cola after work) do for a drink?
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