Seymour: Tobacco tax leading to violent crime

[El Presidente]

Seymour: Tobacco tax leading to violent crime

Author

Newstalk ZB Staff,

 

Section

National,

 

Publish Date

Saturday, 7 October 2017, 12:34PM

David Seymour says tax on cigarettes should be lessened. (Photo Getty Images)

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A high school economics student could've predicted an increase on tobacco tax would lead to more robberies.

That's from Act Party leader David Seymour after at least 490 robberies or burglaries targeting cigarettes over a 13 month period.

He said the next Government has to review the annual tobacco tax hike policy.

"It has led to poverty amongst the poorest New Zealanders and people turning to violent crime to get tobacco."

Seymour believes his point on tobacco tax has been proved by the big jump in raids on dairies.

Mr Seymour said it's only to be expected, with the price of cigarettes going up ten percent year on year.

"It has not led to a reduction in smoking, it has led to violence as people try to steal bricks of cigarettes that have been turned into $300 gold bars by tobacco taxes."

[MrGlass]

They'll probably try to go the other way with this and use it as justification to make the price increases even larger. 

[Shaunster]

490 robberies over 13month period doesnt sound like that many TBH. I cant see that swaying anyone.

[Customsfan]

Even in the states.  There have been a couple of deaths around this—that I know of.   Mainly the resale of of loose cigarettes.

[GrouchoMarx]

Amazing - and here in Ontario Canada - they're getting ready to DOUBLE the cost of tobacco.

Right now a carton (8 packs of 25) is around $115. Plus, its estimated that almost half the smokers are using the black market for their "smokes" - they don't really know, since there are no real stats on the black market.

Someone just doesn't have enough mayo in their tuna salad, if you know what I mean.

[PigFish]

Governments are not altruistic. They care about their jobs... growing government and collection taxes. Public welfare is a means to sway an ignorant mob. What happens at the ground level where Mr. and Mrs. JQ Public lives and works, and eventually dies, is of no concern to a bureaucrat in office or in the administrative state.

We have had a 'war on poverty, on drugs, on terrorists'.... for how long now? Where has it gotten us? Governments rarely deal with a situation in any fashion other than one that grows government and increases tax revenue, feeds lobbyists and corporate statists!

-Piggy

[Cubadust]

5 hours ago, Shaunster said:

490 robberies over 13month period doesnt sound like that many TBH. I cant see that swaying anyone.

Well, New Zealand is roughly half the size of London (population wise). 

[SCgarman]

2 hours ago, GrouchoMarx said:

Amazing - and here in Ontario Canada - they're getting ready to DOUBLE the cost of tobacco.

Right now a carton (8 packs of 25) is around $115. Plus, its estimated that almost half the smokers are using the black market for their "smokes" - they don't really know, since there are no real stats on the black market.

Someone just doesn't have enough mayo in their tuna salad, if you know what I mean.

Time to send a couple of mules with a cargo van down to North Carolina.

[Fuzz AI]

56 minutes ago, Cubadust said:

Well, New Zealand is roughly half the size of London (population wise). 

Sydney has more people than all of New Zealand... mostly because all the New Zealanders are here in Bondi.

[Corylax18]

Are there any "Havens" or "Loopholes" in OZ? I'm not sure exactly how Australian society views states/territories rights, but in the US we can get around a lot of this crap. You want cheap cigarettes? Drive a couple hours to an Indian Reservation. Tax Free Baby. Fireworks illegal in your state? drive one, maybe two states over, load your trunk up till the bumper scraps and drive back to your state. Wanna get high? Head to one of the rapidly growing number of states with legal weed. You like hookers? The desert of Nevada has multiple life times worth. (No, Not Vegas) 

Don't get me wrong, we have Nanny states too. Some people even appear to enjoy living in them. 

[PigFish]

1 hour ago, Corylax18 said:

Are there any "Havens" or "Loopholes" in OZ? I'm not sure exactly how Australian society views states/territories rights, but in the US we can get around a lot of this crap. You want cheap cigarettes? Drive a couple hours to an Indian Reservation. Tax Free Baby. Fireworks illegal in your state? drive one, maybe two states over, load your trunk up till the bumper scraps and drive back to your state. Wanna get high? Head to one of the rapidly growing number of states with legal weed. You like hookers? The desert of Nevada has multiple life times worth. (No, Not Vegas) 

Don't get me wrong, we have Nanny states too. Some people even appear to enjoy living in them. 

I looked at some land in Idaho a couple of months ago. One more good rally in the housing market in the Peoples' Repulik and Isla Pigfish might be doing just that!

Oh, and Clark County (Vegas) has plenty of hookers... they are just 'ostensibly' legal... -LOL You tell a pit-boss at the tables you are in town for a bachelor's party and you will be surrounded by them in one hour...

-Piggy

[Fugu]

14 hours ago, El Presidente said:

Tobacco tax leading to violent crime

"That's from Act Party leader David Seymour after at least 490 robberies or burglaries targeting cigarettes over a 13 month period."

Laughable. Robbing a few packs of cigars is not a "violent crime", it's simple theft (and we here use to call it "self-help"). Lurid headlining.

[Auspaul]

7 hours ago, Corylax18 said:

Are there any "Havens" or "Loopholes" in OZ? I'm not sure exactly how Australian society views states/territories rights, but in the US we can get around a lot of this crap. You want cheap cigarettes? Drive a couple hours to an Indian Reservation. Tax Free Baby. Fireworks illegal in your state? drive one, maybe two states over, load your trunk up till the bumper scraps and drive back to your state. Wanna get high? Head to one of the rapidly growing number of states with legal weed. You like hookers? The desert of Nevada has multiple life times worth. (No, Not Vegas) 

Don't get me wrong, we have Nanny states too. Some people even appear to enjoy living in them. 

No Nothing its a big place and the extortionate tobacco taxes apply everywhere

 

[Fuzz AI]

7 hours ago, Corylax18 said:

Are there any "Havens" or "Loopholes" in OZ? I'm not sure exactly how Australian society views states/territories rights, but in the US we can get around a lot of this crap. You want cheap cigarettes? Drive a couple hours to an Indian Reservation. Tax Free Baby. Fireworks illegal in your state? drive one, maybe two states over, load your trunk up till the bumper scraps and drive back to your state. Wanna get high? Head to one of the rapidly growing number of states with legal weed. You like hookers? The desert of Nevada has multiple life times worth. (No, Not Vegas) 

Don't get me wrong, we have Nanny states too. Some people even appear to enjoy living in them. 

No such thing in Oz. Though, in Nimbin you can get away with smoking marijuana. The local cops tend to either give you a caution or completely ignore you.

 

[Leopolis Semper Fidelis]

14 hours ago, Fugu said:

"That's from Act Party leader David Seymour after at least 490 robberies or burglaries targeting cigarettes over a 13 month period."

Laughable. Robbing a few packs of cigars is not a "violent crime", it's simple theft (and we here use to call it "self-help"). Lurid headlining.

Actually, quite a few of these robberies have been violent where the shop staff of outlets selling cigarettes have been attacked, injured and hospitalised.  Despite this, even with a new government, the tobacco taxes will keep on increasing.

[Leopolis Semper Fidelis]

18 hours ago, Fuzz said:

Sydney has more people than all of New Zealand... mostly because all the New Zealanders are here in Bondi.

An exaggeration, surely?  New Zealand has over 4 million people, roughly equivalent to Sydney's total population.

[Fuzz AI]

11 minutes ago, Leopolis Semper Fidelis said:

An exaggeration, surely?  New Zealand has over 4 million people, roughly equivalent to Sydney's total population.

Sydney has just over 5 million people, whereas NZ is about 4.5 million.

[Leopolis Semper Fidelis]

1 minute ago, Fuzz said:

Sydney has just over 5 million people, whereas NZ is about 4.5 million.

Thanks for bringing me up to date.  However, my principal point still stands: ALL the New Zealanders are not in Bondi! 

[Fuzz AI]

9 minutes ago, Leopolis Semper Fidelis said:

Thanks for bringing me up to date.  However, my principal point still stands: ALL the New Zealanders are not in Bondi! 

Feels like it some days...

About 15% of NZ's population lives in Australia, most of them in QLD, with about 80,000 in Sydney.

[Leopolis Semper Fidelis]

2 minutes ago, Fuzz said:

Feels like it some days...

About 15% of NZ's population lives in Australia, most of them in QLD, with about 80,000 in Sydney.

This reminds me of two quotes attributed to Sir Robert Muldoon, a former NZ Prime Minister:

"New Zealanders who leave for Australia raise the IQ of both countries" and "New Zealand was colonised initially by those Australians who had the initiative to escape". 

[PapaDisco]

To turn this thing around, reduce costs and expand access, we need to take a page from the marijuana playbook . . . we need to make this about the medicinal properties of smoking!