First a tax, now a licence

Vivienne Crompton
August 5, 2013
Nanny State, Personal liberties

Last week I commented on the increasing intolerance of smokers and this week the do-gooders have upped the ante by proposing a licence to smoke. Smart cards will be issued to all smokers (after they have passed a test that will lecture them on the negatives of smoking) and these smart cards will have to presented to all retailers of tobacco products before purchase. The cards will collect data on the holders so that the they can be targeted to “help them quit.”

Government bureaucrats do not have the right to look over our shoulder every time we consume a legal product. Imposing a licensing regime like this would be an outrageous breach of our civil liberties.

The idea has been put forward by University of Sydney Law School’s Professor Roger Magnusson and chief executive of the Cancer Institute NSW Professor David Currow. It should be noted that it was the same David Currow who claimed that $31.5 billion is the “social cost of smoking” in Australia, a claim that has been thoroughly debunked by Nick Cater, as the IPA’s Simon Breheny noted here.

Tobacco is a legal product, and one that the government already handsomely taxes. Profligate governments use cigarette taxes as a convenient cash cow to fund their own budget black holes, whilst scapegoating it’s overtaxed addicts.