To clarify my stance, this is me defending the existing tax on beer, rather than advocating for it to be higher.

@GunnerTas Nah it’s too high and beer brewers get a bad deal on tax compared to wine producers for no other reason than class stigma of beer drinkers

@cosmicjester Tax wine higher then.

@GunnerTas Why?

@disco___cat Non-essential recreational consumer good that has very well known and observable negative impacts on people's mental and physical health when abused or taken in large quantities.

@GunnerTas I'd agree but it's starting to make illicit drugs seem cheap

@Michael270 That's a fair concern.

@GunnerTas imo if you’re taxing beer that high you should be taxing every alcohol

@GunnerTas well i hate you

@GunnerTas The only problem with the alcohol excise is that it isn’t weighted by standard drinks and thus taxes some drinks unfairly.

@GunnerTas alcohol is bad and should be drunk less

@GunnerTas Nah it's killing live music venues and small breweries. It's a tax that adversely affects poor people and encourages illicit drug taking by making safe alcohol in safe environments prohibitively expensive.

@GunnerTas Its a poor tax

@GunnerTas How would you feel if they taxed soy milk?

@GunnerTas well yr opinion is silly

@GunnerTas Blocked and reported

@GunnerTas But what will I drink with my succulent Chinese dinner?

@GunnerTas It's already taxed a lot more than wine and the gap is increasing every 6 months. Taxing an abusable substance is fine in principle. But the hardest hit by the increases have been the small breweries that are helping to civilise our (historically awful) drinking culture.

@GunnerTas Sin tax

@GunnerTas I'm sure the small business owners of craft breweries that are entering voluntary administration each and every week enjoy your perspective.