HAS ANYTHING REALLY CHANGED IN 20 YEARS?

I am not sure if this will be of any interest to others but I always enjoy finding old newpapers and checking out some of the articles they contained. I was turning out a cupboard today and came across a newspaper cutting I had kept and on the reverse side was the following article:

The West Australian..Friday 22 November, 1991.

"Cigarettes up 90 cents and Beer up 5 cents....

A packet of 25 cigarettes would go up from $3.65 to $4.53 and a middy of beer would cost 5 cents more.

An Opposition health spokesman said that 25 per cent increase in tobacco excise was the most effective way to curb smoking among young Australians and reduce tobacco-related disease.

Tobacco Institute chief executive officer John Welch said the proposed increase was a callous grab at the 3.5 million adult smokers.

Alcohol would go up even though the excise on liquor would remain the same and indexation would be abolished. A 140ml glass of wine would cost 5 cents more and a nip of spirits would be 10 cents dearer.

The decision to abolish fuel excise would save motorists almost 19 cents a litre for petrol and diesel and a business user almost 26 cents a litre.

That should save the average family travelling 20,000km a year $11.40 for a 60 litre tank, or $390 a year."

When you think of how much it costs these days to fill your petrol tank we could do with some price reductions as well.

I am not sure that the large increase in the price of cigarettes really reduced the number of young people smoking as I see quite a few today that smoke. It didn't affect MOH and myself back in 1991 as we had become non-smokers way back in 1971 but I am sure we were glad of the saving in fuel.

Now our Federal government in their wisdom want cigarettes to come in plain packaging that shows large health warnings. Wonder what the next big idea will be?