SMOKING is one of the great scourges of Australian life. It is addictive, life shortening, increasingly socially unacceptable and now even more expensive thanks to increases in government taxes.
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For someone with a pack-a-day habit of 25 cigarettes it will now cost them $81 a week for the pleasure - $9.87 extra due to these new taxes.
For the majority of the population who are non-smokers it is a vote winner - it is a filthy habit that should be taxed to the hilt.
The statistics on the damage caused by smoking are horrendous.
The Cancer Council estimates that the overall damage to Australia in terms of health, productivity and hospital costs exceeds $35 billion a year and the habit kills 15,000 Australians annually.
If you begin smoking as a teenager and continue through your adult life then you have a 50 per cent chance that a smoking related illness will end your life prematurely.
About 30 per cent of cancer deaths in men are caused by smoking, 70 per cent of coronary heart disease is caused by smoking and nearly 40 per cent of strokes in men and women under 65 are caused by smoking.
Smoking related illnesses cost Australia $1.8 billion a year and represents a $700 million impost on our already stretched hospitals.
When Kevin Rudd increased the excise on smokes in 2010 by 25 per cent health experts estimated that it lead to an 11 per cent reduction in tobacco consumption.
Unfortunately indigenous Australians and those in lower socio-economic groups are over represented in smoking statistics.
Hopefully this new tax hike will encourage more Australians to seek help and kick the habit because there is more hip-pocket pain ahead.
The excise is due to rise 12.5 per cent again next September and again in September 2016.
Quitting is not easy and normally takes three to four attempts which is why more of this extra revenue should be directed at health initiatives to help people quit.
