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Candor Trust

Candor Backs Call For Higher Alcohol Taxes

The Campaign Against Drugs on Roads gives full backing to today's calls for raised alcohol taxes. The Salvation Army is correct to assert that a price hike of significance would forcibly reduce the harm to a notable degree.

According to Rebecca Williams of Alcohol Health Watch it could kill 2 birds with one stone, as she says that an increase in taxes on alcohol could provide alternative sponsorship funds to sporting and other recreational and cultural organisations, that are currently funded by alcohol interests.

Alcohol advertising is harmful to road safety yet the Standards Authority has proven powerless, and a road tax in the form of a lowered alcohol limit that targets among the the lowest risk drivers (adult drivers at 0.05 are drivers 4x safer than sober teens)cannot produce road safety benefits of note. It is using a "feel good" nutcracker, when a sledgey is readily available in the form of a challenge to drinking culture by tax.

Candor Trust has submitted that demand for alcohol must be reduced in the at risk groups, and that doing this by taxes is the Golden Goose for road safety. So to the benefits mentioned by AHW and the Sallies of a tax hike we must add a noticeably reduced road toll.

A limit drop is a red herring, proven to increase youth tolls in Victoria, until random drug testing was bought in in 2004 to reduce the awful drug alcohol combining that was upping their toll like here. So successful at reducing the drunk and drug driving toll has Victoria's program been, that the Labour Government doubled test numbers to 40,000 this year.

Most peculiar then, to hear the Transport Minister today delivering a speech on reducing our phenomenal youth toll, without even one mention that it's phenomenal primarily due to drug use under 20 and drug and alcohol combining over.

Nothing in the road safety package items he touted addressed the crux issue.. If direct action, other than a symbolic but completely ineffectual limit drop is out of the question, then we must raise alcohol taxes.

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