Tax increase with 12 hours notice

I cannot think of another example where they announced and implemented a tax rise on the same day - it's unheard of, I could see the tax going on after a certain date (usually 1 July) and there's warning that it would occur - they've obviously gotten some advice from Anti-Smoking "experts" who say that giving people fair warning will cause them to stockpile while the price is cheap - well duh, that doesn't make what they've done right - they are officially governing on the run

On a related note This made me laugh
Buyers fired up over Kevin Rudd's 'unfair' slug
LES Burns spent his entire weekly pay cheque stocking up on his favourite smokes yesterday before the government's 25 per cent rise in tobacco tax kicked in at midnight.

The 50-year-old printer, who smokes two packs a day, bought seven cartons, or 56 packets, of Winfield Blue cigarettes from a tobacconist in Parramatta, in Sydney's west.

Mr Burns, who takes home on average about $630 a week, spent $634.20 on the 1400 cigarettes and said it was "worth every cent".

Healthy Smoking!

An article in today's Sydney Morning Herald details a opinion piece in the Jakarta Post written by a board member of the Victor Chang Foundation.

The piece is controversial because it suggests that smoking can be healthy for you, you can read the Herald's write up about it here

What’s awesome about this story is that it proves that Indonesia is still not under government control and, unlike Australia, is NOT a Nanny state!

Sure the message is wrong, but if you’re stupid enough to believe claims like this then I’d like to put you in touch with a Nigerian prince who needs your credit card details in order to launder his money!

Later on in the article we get two cents worth from yet another lobby group - this one is called Action on Smoking and Health (A.S.H. geddit!) you know - I gotta start my own lobby group because this is clearly the growth industry in this country at the moment.