Ben Packham August 04, 2013 The Australian AUSTRALIANS will go to the polls on September 7, Kevin Rudd has confirmed in an email to supporters. The Prime Minister informed supporters of the date via email, after visiting Governor-General Quentin Bryce this afternoon. ”A few moments ago I saw the Governor-General and asked that she dissolve this parliament and call the Federal Election for September 7,” Mr Rudd said. Mr Rudd will hold a press conference a 4pm to officially announce the election date and frame his pitch to voters. He told supporters Australians now faced a stark choice – between his ”positive vision” and Tony Abbott’s”negativity”. ”Right now the only thing standing between Australia and an Abbott-led government is you, me, and as many Australians as we can rally to fight for the kind of nation we all want to live in” Mr Rudd said. KEVIN Rudd has dumped key…

BEN PACKHAM July 31, 2013 The Australian KEVIN Rudd has given a strong hint Labor will raise the price of cigarettes in this week’s economic statement saying it was “time to get serious” about tackling the devastating health impacts of smoking. Touring the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital’s under-construction cancer centre in Sydney today, the Prime Minister singled out smoking as a top health priority for his government. “We need to get serious on this major driver of cancer in Australia and around the world. The legitimate question is ‘well what are you doing about it?’. “That’s the nature of the challenge; 125,000 Australians being affected by cancer each year, 30 per cent of them afflicted through smoking-related cancers,’ Mr Rudd said. “And on top of that you have the extraordinary cost to our public hospital system. The cost to the economy by the way is estimated to be $31.5 billion…

PHILLIP HUDSON AUGUST 01, 2013 HERALD SUN SMOKERS will cough up an extra $5.3 billion in tax to help the Rudd Government plug a huge new hole in its Budget. The unusual election-eve notice of a tax grab, adding $5.25 to the price of a pack of 20 cigarettes over four years, is being sold as a step up in the war on smoking-related cancer, which kills 15,000 people a year. Treasurer Chris Bowen will today announce staged 12.5 per cent tax increases, starting on December 1, aimed both at deterring young people from taking up the habit and helping to repair the Budget. From today, smokers and drinkers will also face a $50 million tax slug. There will be an excise rise of 6c to 15c for a pack of cigarettes under automatic half-yearly indexation of the so-called “sin taxes”. Drinkers will be hit with a 13c tax rise…

Steven Scott National August 01, 2013 The Courier-Mail The Government’s plan will push the average price of a packet of cigarettes to well over $20. SMOKERS will be hit with $5.3 billion in extra taxes over the next four years as the Rudd Government tries to fill a growing Budget blackhole. Average cigarette packets will be pushed well over $20 under the plan the Government says is aimed at cutting smoking rates. But Labor will only spend a portion of the money raised on cancer treatments, despite portraying the hike as a public health initiative. Under the plan, tobacco excise will rise by 12.5 per cent a year from December 1 this year, with further increases on September 1 in following three years. A packet of 20 Winfield Blue cigarettes will rise by 98c this year and will cost $5.25 more by the end of 2016, according to government modelling.…

Sue Dunlevy August 05, 2013 News Limited Network Experts say the smart card system could drastically reduce smoking in young adults. SMOKERS already face Kevin Rudd’s $5 a pack tax rise and now cancer experts want them to apply for a licence to smoke. Professor Roger Magnusson of the University of Sydney’s Law School and Professor David Currow of the Cancer Institute NSW say a smart-card licence would combat teenage smoking. Retailers would have to check the licence before every sale to verify that every pack sold is purchased by an adult, the authors write in today’s Medical Journal of Australia. Even though it is illegal in all Australian states and territories to sell tobacco to anyone under 18 – 2.5 per cent of adolescents aged 12-17 years are daily smokers and another 1.3 per cent smoke less frequently. Thirty-one per cent of the tobacco smoked by adolescents was purchased…