The alcopops tax revisited

Back in 2008, the Rudd Government decided to impose a special tax on alcopops, ready mixed drinks liked by the young. The aim was to reduce drinking by young people.

I wasn't impressed. In Alcopops and mixed drinks - The Head strikes I expressed my reservations. I thought that it would simply shift drinking to other forms of alcohol, that it wasn't very sensible. Initially the opposition opposed the measure, but then weakened.

Well, what happened? We now have some data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

Apparent consumption of ready mixed drinks dropped by 30 per in 2008-2009 and then a further 1.9 per cent in 2009-2010. So far so good. However, increase in consumption of wines and spirits increased. The apparent per capita consumption of alcohol was the same in 2009-10 as it was the previous year and only slightly down (.17 of a litre) from 2007-2008.

Now it may be that young people consumed less and others more. Still, it doesn't appear to have been a very successful policy measure, and that was my point.