Release: “Don’t leave alcohol policy to the hobgoblins”
The Australian Taxpayers’ Alliance, a 75,000+ member grassroots advocacy group has today lashed out at calls from Health Bureaucrats to exclude stakeholders from any involvement government policy.
A leaked draft of the National Alcohol Strategy has led silent ministers and health bureaucrats to call for the complete exclusion of industry stakeholders, despite the fact that any policy changes would affect jobs and industry.
“It is ludicrous to think government bureaucrats and taxpayer funded grifters are the only ones who should have input on national government strategies that affect business, affect jobs, and potentially curtail our civil liberties. While steps to curb alcohol related issues are encouraging, the fact is we cannot allow a select few hobgoblins who live in the Canberra bubble and have zero real-world experience to have the sole input on government policy.” said Brian Marlow, Executive Director of the Australian Taxpayers’ Alliance.
“Society needs to tackle alcohol related violence, binge drinking, and alcohol addiction. But we need a broad approach to this issue. If we leave it to the bureaucrats who think mayonnaise is spicy, we’ll just end up in a country with plain packaged schooners and ‘sin’ taxes all around. We cannot allow this to happen.”
“Large multi-national alcohol producers may be able to absorb any regulatory burdens placed on them, but what about our small local brewers made up of hard working every-day Australians? These are the people we need to consider in this broad strategy document”.