Shane Rattenbury calls for more expensive booze [With poll]

neanderthalsis said :

So more expensive grog will act as a deterrent in the same way that more expensive cigarettes have stopped smoking, more expensive petrol has stopped people driving and more expensive electricity has saved the antarctic from becoming a tropical paradise.

Wait are second. Are you sure those things aren’t a deterrent? Petrol prices definitely impact on people’s travel choices. More expensive electricity has made people change their energy habits. Don’t know about the cigarette one though…

Clown Killer said :

And how exactly does he intend to stop me buying wine and spirits on-line at significantly less than what you would pay in the liquor store?

It doesnt stop you doing that at all. It does stop a couple of kids putting 5 bucks together and buying a 4-pack of RTDs at the local. Most people over the age of 18 have figured out that its significantly cheaper to mix your own drinks than buy alcopops anyway.

It will penalise us mature-aged Canberrans who do our binge-drinking at home . . .

p1 said :

Snapped this pic Sunday Morning. At least they didn’t drive home…

That is the Party Car! They even used glasses. I wonder what happened to them?

At some point, it has to be accepted that many underage drinkiers are going to binge drink, no matter what the cost. The deterrent may work for a small proportion of binge drinkers, but in the end, young people will still equate getting drunk to being cool…

IMHO it would be FAR MORE EFFECTIVE to ask every purchaser if they are intending to binge drink, and if they say yes, place an additional fee on their purchase…

jeez p1, can you send in gems like that and tell me where they were taken?

PM said :

If he hadn’t have supported Corbell’s liquor laws people wouldn’t feel so inclined to “pre-load” before they headed out for a night on the town (ie, booze at clubs etc is too expensive).

Snapped this pic Sunday Morning. At least they didn’t drive home…

The Frots said :

Erg0 said :

I get the feeling that a lot of people don’t actually know what Shane’s referring to here. Either that or they’re really bothered about not being able to get a $20 case of awful, awful beer at Woolies. Or they’re irrational reactionaries. Definitely one of those.

Not sure what your getting at with this one.

If you read the release, he’s only talking about preventing excessive discounting by supermarkets, which hardly seems to warrant rampant hyperbole about attacks on our way of life.

I suspect that the reference to recommended retail price is an error – there was a movement on Coles’ part towards selling some of the more “working class” beers at lower than cost price, in a similar vein to their aggressive discounting of milk.

If he hadn’t have supported Corbell’s liquor laws people wouldn’t feel so inclined to “pre-load” before they headed out for a night on the town (ie, booze at clubs etc is too expensive). Contrary to what was being claimed by the ACT Govt when the laws were being introduced, these new liquor laws have had an adverse affect on violence because people are now drinking booze with no RSA.

Is this press release an admission that he erred in supporting the ACT Govt’s liquor laws?

And how does Shane’s party’s flirtation with decriminalising something like ecstacy (in NSW, at least, and I know that division is a tad nuttier than here) align with his stance against Civic violence, when many observations of the numb-nuts who mostly cause problems is that they have alcohol AND illicit drugs in their system?

neanderthalsis said :

So more expensive grog will act as a deterrent in the same way that more expensive cigarettes have stopped smoking, more expensive petrol has stopped people driving and more expensive electricity has saved the antarctic from becoming a tropical paradise.

Nice straw man!

Erg0 said :

I get the feeling that a lot of people don’t actually know what Shane’s referring to here. Either that or they’re really bothered about not being able to get a $20 case of awful, awful beer at Woolies. Or they’re irrational reactionaries. Definitely one of those.

Not sure what your getting at with this one.

What a lot of wank. So kids get drunk Hello! They always have, always will. So everyone has to be penalised? Bugger off.

I admired Smirnoff’s stand on the “alcopops” nonsense. They released Goon bags of pre-mixed Vodka and sweet flavourings.

We are already stung massively on grog tax. It doesn’t stop anything, just funnels more money to the government. Hey shane, what about all the fatty boom-bah kiddies out there, why aren’t you going after the mall doughnut chains and Maccas? Or their parents… tax them per kilo of bodyweight.

Erg0 said :

I get the feeling that a lot of people don’t actually know what Shane’s referring to here. Either that or they’re really bothered about not being able to get a $20 case of awful, awful beer at Woolies. Or they’re irrational reactionaries. Definitely one of those.

Or maybe some of us just think that politicians could find better things to do with their well-paid time. Like planking for example.

I get the feeling that a lot of people don’t actually know what Shane’s referring to here. Either that or they’re really bothered about not being able to get a $20 case of awful, awful beer at Woolies. Or they’re irrational reactionaries. Definitely one of those.

I take it that Rattenbury had a crappy childhood and teenage years so he wants to ruin it for everyone. It seems that whenever the pollies hear about something fun or interesting that folk get up to in Canberra, they go out of their way to over-regulate it, charge for it, take credit for it or just ban it.

If he wants to go ahead with this then he should take a look at the cost of living compared to the comsumer price index. Just because he lives in a gilded mansion where he can afford whatever he wants does not mean that the rest of Canberra can afford it. By doing this he is alienating a couple of demographics and raising the general cost of living for everyone. Dont make people over 30 suffer because you want to target young people.

If you read this Shane (and i dont think that you will), think about the “average” canberran as your target interest and not your hipster, 100K a year mates when making decisions that affect everyone.

You will never tackle binge drinking because it is an individual exercise exercised by the individual.

Again politicians calling for action o be taken so those of us who can d things responsibly pay for the actions of those who can’t. Nice work Shane. Will we pay more for coffee too because of the people who get over hyped on caffine?

“… large retailers have engaged in aggressive competition behaviour which has driven prices below the recommended retail price in some instances.”

Please tell me someone has told Shane that the RRP is an arbitrary figure made up by the manufacturer or distributor and its purpose is simply that of a marketting tool.

And how exactly does he intend to stop me buying wine and spirits on-line at significantly less than what you would pay in the liquor store?

Just another dumb-arse policy from this pack of retards.

So more expensive grog will act as a deterrent in the same way that more expensive cigarettes have stopped smoking, more expensive petrol has stopped people driving and more expensive electricity has saved the antarctic from becoming a tropical paradise.

Once again we see our left wing pollies waging a “War on Alcopops” to save the kiddies from the evil menace of vodka lolly water. As with KRudds Alcopop war, this will simply see the kiddies shift to other, cheaper forms of booze, like the binge drinkers gut rot of choice when I was a teen, passion pop, asti spumante and Stones.

Will we see the emergence of cross border bootlegging as people drive out to the wilderness of Quangers to buy a trailer load of cheap booze to last through the chilly winter months?

johnboy said :

Aww, shane’s got a friend after all!

It was probably him voting.

Aww, shane’s got a friend after all!

This poll is going better than I’d imagined.

Hey King O’ Rattenbury. Ever hear of Queenbeyan? Out the airport?