Following the four 12.5 per cent increases in excise, taxation as a proportion of the retail price of a packet of cigarettes will sit at around the World Health Organisation’s target of 75 per cent of the retail price. Estimates suggest that in Australia these measures should lead to tens of thousands more Australians quitting smoking and that number again will smoke less than they otherwise would for every excise increase contained in this package. After initially opposing this measure as “another tax grab”, Labor welcomes the Coalition’s inclusion of it in the 2016 Budget.
in favour of anti-growth politics