it is a certainty that smokers will be paying for your recent bonus,because smokers are the ultimate tax vehicle

just as we never had the debate about carbon caused global warming, we have never had the debate of just what these 19,000 smoking related DISEASES ARE, that smokers get their full cost and burdon and guilt laid on us

this is despite smokers often getting refused treatment in hospitals

so my question is how many smoking related diseases are also drink related?

is it fair that we get all the blame and all the tax burden?

will smokers ever wake up and rebel?

will govt ever declare the real causes of death?

have you read the messages on smoking packages?
which is more objectionable?

will the smokers party hold the balance of power in the senet?
why this taboo on tobacco?
please explain

It won't just be tobacco taxes that go up. With this Government's wasteful attitude towards money many people will be paying a lot more tax for a long time. Maybe smokers live shorter lives than most so they need to pay a bit more to make up for the years they could be alive. Just a thought.

OK...1- I am a smoker
2- Yes, smoking does cause health problems for some smokers, perhaps even as much as 50%, perhaps.
3- Beyond that, virtually ALL the ills allotted to smoking are statistically based, and we ALL know what THAT means.
4- Non smokers don't like the smell, and there lies the reason all the rest has happened, they'll believe anything bad about it because it stinks, that's human nature for you.
5- I blame the tobacco companies, if they hadn't tried to pretend it was harmless, and gone to such insane and ultimately ridiculous lengths to deny it, it would never have got to the current state of affairs, they brought the wrath of the Moralists down on all our heads.
6- Governments are like seagulls, and are just as quick to spot an opportunity, whenever there's a pile of moving money, in go the snouts, if you'll pardon the mixed metaphor. Once it became so un-PC to smoke, they knew they could feed like there was no tomorrow, and are.

im reading from a packet of tobacco [the 'health' warning]
listing the causes of death
it reads smoking 19.019...alcohol..2,831..motervehicle 1731

BUT hang on a minute suicides are 3 times the rad deaths[are the 9000 suicides all smokers?]
isnt drinking and smoking interelated?

the warnings miss an important point[attributable]

see that if we attribute heart attacks as smoking RELATED, they all go into the figures as smoking..[attributable to smoking],

same with all the lung diseases..[asbestosis is a lung disease [all lung diseases at attributable to smoking..[all cancer is smoking related]

we saw a massove shift of the tax burden under mr howhard from tax cuts to the rich, to gst, ciogarete tax on smokers[but not wine drinkers..now rudd is more of the same [tax maybe on alcopops [yeah right]..but not on wine

tax on petrol..[but with the price falling we see a huge gap in the tax take..govt revenue is reduced by 200 bil...lol..[why..look at the reduced exise take on cheaper gas]so lets tax the smokers[no media will get behind the smokers cause

this fraud must eventually see a polical party defend the rights of smokers...but more likely will be some party stooge[front]to get preferances..[we are told we are being sold a poisen..[yet govt does nothing to make smoking safer]..a tax isnt going to cure an addiction

did anyone hear about the china [providence] where GOVT demanded they smoke MORE of the local product..[because its local TAXED smoke is unsmokable]..its so typical of the govt revenue raising system

to add to the injury we are vilified and decieved by the real facts[take that picture of gangreen toes ,or deformed teeth [are we really expected to believe smoking did those..[give the names of the people photographed[proove these photo's of cow arteries are really smokers]

i just spent over 300 buying my smokes today[the plan is to not spend a further penny,..i plan to overdose on em]..how many i need to smoke to od?

I am neither a smoker, or drinker, probably why I can live on the pension, but I do agree with you OUG.

It's worse than that. When we had a pack of hounds, baying in pursuit of bad doctors, killing their patients, the doctors got smart. They dragged the red herring of smoking related diseases across the trail, & off the hounds went, baying their heads off.

Then the pack picked up the control freaks, keen to stop anyone doing their own thing, & the bull sh1t mounted. It was only then the pollies stepped in, with their tax grab. Like the mongrels they are, they are always in the rear.

I am still no better off. I am into old sports cars. With their high compression engines they require real petrol, not the cr4p that comes out of our pumps today. With their greenie fawning policies, they have made this hard to get, & tax it as heavily as your tobaco. Whats more, I can't grow it in the back yard.

I guess if a tax rise on cigarettes is going to make 130,000 people give up then the rest better pay more to keep the money coming in.

Funny thing with alcohol. I mean you don't smoke a pack of 25 then go beat your wife and kids aye.

Oh and stopping smoking will stop 35,000 children taking up smoking (newspaper this morning)... probably another 35,000 will not get to a doctor or eat very well since mum and dad have to pay more for tobacco.

I smoke, I'm annoyed.