Australians can pay as much as 20 times more alcohol tax on a shot of gin as they do on a standard drink of wine. And while the wine tax rate is the same as it was two decades ago, the excise on beer and spirits has risen more than 17% since the beginning of the pandemic.
Alcohol-induced deaths in Australia are at some of the highest levels in more than a decade. The alcohol tax system was intended to encourage people towards drinks with lower alcohol content, or to consume less overall, but public health advocates say it is no longer working – and industry lobbyists are partly to blame.
