Some of you will have heard that as of today the tax on pre-mixed alcoholic drinks has risen substantially. Since I work in the Liquor industry I thought I should come on here and voice my opinion.

Frankly this reeks of short sighted politics to me, now instead of buying those drinks kids will simply buy larger bottles of straight spirits, which no doubt pose more danger to kids.

If binge drinking is such a problem, then where are the parents, why are they not held accountable for their children. I see parents everyday come in and buy alcohol for their children, and everyday I must refuse them service which then leads to a big argument over the fact that they [the parents] think they have a right to buy their kids alcohol (which they don’t, its actually illegal in Victoria and strictly enforced).

The government turns around and tries to blame everyone for this problem, well I ask you this Mr Rudd, where are the police when kids are running in the streets, drunk and without supervision (happened Friday night in Dingley Village), why do the police simply give these kids a warning and let them continue their dangerous behaviour? Why weren’t parents called? and more importantly why wasn’t alcohol confiscated?

The reason is Mr Rudd your and Mr Brumby’s government fail to provide enough money for the effective enforcement of the law, you fail to provide suitable working conditions for your current police force and you aren’t increasing the size of the police force enough to be able to fix some of these problems.

And to Consumer Affairs Victoria (aka. Liquor Licensing), your also responsible, the signs you have warning parents about secondary purchase are pathetic, they are not very clear and far too small to have any impact. Why don’t you spend those nice taxes the federal government is now raising as of today on getting larger and more understandable signage, a public awareness campaign making parents aware that if they purchase alcohol for their children they are breaking the law and after that is done we will be able to spend the left over money on increasing the capacity of the Police force to respond to alcohol related incidents.

Finally we need legislation changed to create a blanket rule on underage drinking. At the present time it is perfectly legal for parents to order their children an alcoholic beverage if they are in a licensed establishment partaking in a meal, so why can they do this? Why this rule for restaurants and a different rule for liquor stores?

Frankly Mr Rudd I’m paying taxes on my income, on every thing I buy (GST) except fresh food, on alcohol, on petrol and with all this money you get from every working Australian, the best you can come up with raising taxes. I cannot wait to vote you out at the next election.