Cigarette price hike will bring a downside

COMMENT
Questions about street begging in the MSIC survey might better relate to smoking, according to previous comments by Wayside Chapel Pastor Graham Long. While at one time being approached for money by people financing a drug habit was fairly common in Kings Cross, it seems to have dropped off. These days people don’t even seem to ask for money, instead asking directly for a smoke  – possibly because street begging has become less productive as the general public suffers compassion overload.

The Federal Government’s plan to save smokers from themselves through a massive tax hike on smokes might indeed help some to quit. But marginalised street people already suffer so many risks to their life expectancy that they are not likely to benefit. Instead, one of the few comforts of a bleak existence will be made unaffordable, and this will most likely increase begging.

Worldwide there is a correlation between cigarette smuggling and a marked difference in tobacco price between countries, which creates a profit opportunity. It is inevitable that the prohibitionary effect of the new tax will encourage smuggling.

by Michael Gormly