Fed: Fielding adamant on alcohol ads as govt refloats tax

AAP General News (Australia)
04-15-2009
Fed: Fielding adamant on alcohol ads as govt refloats tax

CANBERRA, April 15 AAP - Family First senator Steve Fielding has suggested he won't
support an extension of the alcopops tax beyond 12 months without changes to alcohol advertising
laws.

Senator Fielding said he would maintain the position that saw the increased excise
on pre-mixed alcoholic drinks, which has raised $365 million since April 2008, defeated
in the Senate last month.

"They're still trying to hide behind the alcopops tax as a binge drinking measure,
it is not a binge drinking measure ... it is a revenue raiser and it will not address
binge drinking, this is the issue," Senator Fielding told reporters on Wednesday.

"The government doesn't want to tackle the hard issues of looking at alcohol advertising
and breaking the link between alcohol advertising and sport, this is still on the table."

Earlier on Wednesday, the government said it would introduce fresh legislation to resurrect
its alcopops tax hike, and would legislate to validate the revenue collected up until
last month's Senate defeat.

Senator Fielding will support the bill to validate the revenue already collected.

But he says he will not support the other bill to validate the continuation of the increased tax.

He wants the government to restrict alcohol advertising during sports programs, a request
the government rejected last month.

AAP keh/kms/tnf/mn

KEYWORD: ALCOPOPS FIELDING

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