On Wed, 18 Jun 2008 08:10:49 +1000, "Martin Field"
> wrote:

>The Australian government in its wisdom is about to ratify health guidelines
>that designate men and women who consume more than three standard drinks a
>day as "binge drinkers".
>
>see http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2...15/2275181.htm
>
>That is no more than three small glasses of wine, or three medium size beers
>(285ml) or three nips of spirits (30ml) per day.
>
>A standard drink is defined as 10 grams of alcohol. That is, container size
>in litres by alcohol content of drink by specific gravity of alcohol .789.
>
>Example - A 750 ml bottle of wine at 13.5% alcohol - .75 X 13.5 X .789 =
>7.99 approx 8 standard drinks.
>
>Of course verybody interviewed on news here - including me thinks it's a
>joke.
>
>Cheers!
>Martin
>
Hey Martin. Running a liquor retail outlet I was apalled at the way
Rudd went about this radical change. If he believes a new tax
addresses a social problem, he is more fool than I thought. Already
the young folks have opted to substitute their RTD's with bottles of
spirits and their fave mixer. Lynne Kosky was waxing lyrical in
parliament claiming in 3 weeks, the sales of RTD's had reduced by 2
million units. She conveniently forgot to mention in those same 3
weeks, sales of bottled liquor (spirits) rose by 20% nationally,
(a fact verified by Nielson industry stats).

The other part of the rushed legislation that peeved this little
independent, was on the Monday, when ALL retailers were supposedly
informed, a certain large chain store had already loaded the new
prices into their system and were charging the new tax rate prices as
of that 1st Monday, (netting millions of dollars profits on OLD
stock!!).

Taxes used to solve social issues...what a joke!!

hooroo...

BTW: say Gidday to Mick Elliott from Matt & Robyn when you next see
him.. :>)