Yesterday, while browsing around the local Tobacco Station, I came across a campaign flyer from the Liberal Democrats, outlining how tobacco taxes are ripping off smokers. The flyer outlines four primary reasons as to how government is more concerned with killing freedom than preserving health:
- Smokers pay $16 per pack in taxes alone.
- Liberal and Labor want it to be raised to $32 per pack in taxes, (making a pack of cigarettes roughly $40 per pack).
- $9 billion is collected in taxes, less than $500 million is spent on smoking related issues.
- The government makes MUCH MORE money on a pack of cigarettes than the retailer or the tobacco companies.
At present, the Liberal Democrats have one federally elected senator, Senator David Leyonhjelm (whom I previously have written about). Having met Senator Leyonhjelm last July at the Murray Darling Basin Plan meeting in Barham, I personally believe him to be a man of conviction against the Nanny State politicians.
As the PC forces are attempting to regulate tobacco out of existence, by limiting the industry’s capacity to advertise freely, (going so far as to install plain packaging laws,) and restricting public and private areas for consumers to smoke, it’s time voters hit back this election.
If you’re a smoker and want to see a revival of flavour country culture, then think of the Liberal Democrats as the political manifestation of the Marlboro man in parliament.
Food for thought.
