Age Article - Sweet 'beers' To Attract Higher Tax

[tcraig20]

I remember when the tax first came in - one of the local pubs started selling cans of red bull and a shot of vodka together - apparently it got around the tax as long as the bar staff dont do the mixing.

 

[kook]

They would mean sugar in-bottle and may even specify. In terms of sucrose/glucose/fructose I don't think there would be greater than 4% left even in a big low-attenuated beer.

But would Maltose or even Maltotriose be counted as sugars?

I'm still trying to get my head around the sums, but I'd always presumed there was more than 4% residual "sugars" in most "normal" craft beers.

 

[brettprevans]

meads and the like might get caught. theres more than 4% sugar in them surely. cider?

 

[Adamt]

That brings up a point...

What if alcopop manufacturers were able to develop a widget of sorts... a widget full of alcohol. That way, it would technically not be "pre-mixed". I'm not sure of the legal wording of the taxation though.

 

[kook]

meads and the like might get caught. theres more than 4% sugar in them surely. cider?

Meads are taxed as wines aren't they?

 

[chappo1970]

Why does KRudd/current government crooks have such a beef with Alcopops?

Does it stem from that's what he (krudd) was drinking when he got caught out in the strip club in New York??

 

[brettprevans]

I did think about that.. yes i think they are. there's not exactly many commerically avial ones in aust anyway.

 

[peas_and_corn]

Why does KRudd/current government crooks have such a beef with Alcopops?

Does it stem from that's what he (krudd) was drinking when he got caught out in the strip club in New York??

It's an easy target, like Rann's targeting of bikies and lawyers.

 

[tcraig20]

Why does KRudd/current government crooks have such a beef with Alcopops?

 

[chappo1970]

Bwahahahaha! :lol:

The kid even looks kinda like our esteemed leader!

 

[Adamt]

Why does KRudd/current government crooks have such a beef with Alcopops?

I'm not sure, they go much better with chicken.

 

[shmick]

The gov't has dug themselves into hole now.

They have already collected some $300 million in taxes and would have to give it all back if they can't get the legislation thru.

Like that's ever going to happen :lol:

 

[~MikE]

actually it sucks to be the government. taxed alcohol, looks quite bad, no evidence to support it's effectiveness and companies successfully circumventing the tax, makes them look even more incompetent, they then look pathetic by trying to rush this bullshit legislation through and hopefully the pre-mixed drinks excise hike (i maintain it is not alcopos tax as it covers a LOT more than alcopos) is turfed in the senate, it will complete the uber FAIL that i imagine will continue to plague the current government.

 

[chappo1970]

But I still don't understand what is the motivation by the Gubberment?

They hiked the alcopops before Christmas? from my failing memory? And anyway all that happened is the kiddies, the ones they are "trying to protect" (fingers making inverted commas - sarcasim intended), went and bought 1lt spirits and mixed their own, just like I used to! or kept on buying them because of high disposable income. Then they (the gubberment) copped a whole help of bs from everywhere about it being a useless bit legislation that won't stem the problem? WTF is the motivation?

 

[trevc]

The current government seems quite set on enforcing all aspects of what should be common sense with laws and regulations. The few examples that bother me the most:

- Wearing (push)bike helmets at all times, regardless of circumstances/location (this is probably old, but still a law here, could be QLD-only)
- Unreasonable taxes on alcohol compared to other countries, especially beer. Using underage/teen drinking as an excuse to further bump taxes and create ineffective legislation
- Nation-wide internet censorship coming in to effect (law, see nocleanfeed.com/. Australia will be joining the ranks of other countries that censor their people, like China and Saudi Arabia.

Worrying trends, to say the least. It's also frustrating knowing how much time and money would be going in to these "amendments", when there's so many more important things law-makers etc could be dealing with.

(Sorry if some of this is a bit off-topic...)

 

[chappo1970]

The current government seems quite set on enforcing all aspects of what should be common sense with laws and regulations. The few examples that bother me the most:

- Wearing (push)bike helmets at all times, regardless of circumstances/location (this is probably old, but still a law here, could be QLD-only)
- Unreasonable taxes on alcohol compared to other countries, especially beer. Using underage/teen drinking as an excuse to further bump taxes and create ineffective legislation
- Nation-wide internet censorship coming in to effect (law, see nocleanfeed.com/. Australia will be joining the ranks of other countries that censor their people, like China and Saudi Arabia.

Worrying trends, to say the least. It's also frustrating knowing how much time and money would be going in to these "amendments", when there's so many more important things law-makers etc could be dealing with.

(Sorry if some of this is a bit off-topic...)

Actually I completely agree. Stop all this useless law making to save people from their own stupidity. The big Brother style "Net Nanny" on the internet scares the beejesus out of me, it goes way to far into our civil liberties IMHO! Remember fascists? Remember what happened? Remember what the economic times were like?

 

[daemon]

Actually I completely agree. Stop all this useless law making to save people from their own stupidity. The big Brother style "Net Nanny" on the internet scares the beejesus out of me, it goes way to far into our civil liberties IMHO! Remember fascists? Remember what happened? Remember what the economic times were like?

It's not even the concept I have the most problem with but the technical implementation. From a technical perspective it's going to be a nightmare as proxy servers take quite a lot of computing resources. These aren't cheap, especially if you need it to scale properly to avoid too many slowdowns. This means slowdowns, failures and timeouts will just be a common occurrence in Australia. Anybody trying to access the websites banned can completely bypass the system within minutes, so it's a failure.

The whole alcopops tax and this latest charade absolutely reeks of Family First influence. Considering how much influence they have in the Senate, it sounds like a deal that Labor has done to gain support / votes. It's been a complete and utter failure yet they're trying to patch it, a but like trying to use gaffa tape on the Titanic!

 

[brettprevans]

the biggest worry i have is thw wording of the legislation. I can just see a low level policy writer draft up the amendments, and it all be passed only to find out that because they dont have a clue about brewing, that a whole heap of items not intented to be covered are all of a suden in scope. beleive me its happened. Ive cleaned up some of the mess before (not anything to do with beer though -other legislation).

 

[trevc]

LETS TAKE THE GOVERNMENT BY FORCE! WE CAN DO IT IF WE ALL FIGHT TOGETHER.


Wait... what... too soon?

 

[Jakechan]

Does that mean that VB cannot legally be called beer anymore?

Are you implying that its a beer now?