Election By Alcopop

All the evidence, both anecdotal and by sales, has indicated that all the alcopop tax has done is shift buying patterns. The binge drinkers simply moved on to harder alcohol.

The government, through good old Julia, are declaring that the alcopop tax has stopped buying (in that category) so it was a success. Remember here that the target was to stop binge drinking. So given that this is not true the real reason was actually a new tax revenue stream.

All of that aside the question remains why push sop hard ion this issue?

The real reason is of course to provide a mechanism to allow for a double dissolution so that Rudd can call and election and go to the polls earlier. After Blight got through the target was always for a November election and the best way to allow him to do that is to pick some way of forcing a stalemate in the Senate.

So here is how it is going to go. Some legislation, probably alcopops, will be used to create the right conditions to be able to call an early (by a year) election.

Rudd has to go early because it is all going to get far worse next year. What might stop this is if unemployment reaches say 8-9% before the election. This may force Rudd to wait and hope things get better before going to an election.

Now it is wait and see time.