Alcohol Tax Changes Needed
AMA President, Dr Bill Glasson, today reactivated the AMA's long-running campaign to change Australia's alcohol tax system to a system that taxes wine and other alcohol products according to their alcohol content, not their price.
Dr Glasson said there would be health and social benefits to the community if the system were changed.
"If we change to what is called a volumetric alcohol tax, it would encourage the production and use of lower alcohol products," Dr Glasson said.
"The current system - known as an ad valorem tax - is a major cause of the disproportionate levels of alcohol-related harm experienced in some areas, particularly in some Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and communities.
"The ad valorem tax is based on the price of the product, and takes no account of the alcohol content.
"It favours the production and sale of cheap cask wine.
"But it is a sad reality that excessive consumption of cheap wine, usually in casks, leads to serious levels of violence and alcohol-related hospitalisations.
"Cheap wine - which is taxed at one-fifth the rate of light beer - accounts for more than half of domestic wine sales.
"Its price is kept artificially low because its wholesale price is cheaper than bottled wine and therefore attracts less tax.
"With the sole exception of tobacco, alcohol misuse accounts for more preventable death, injury and illness than all other drugs combined," Dr Glasson said.