WITH tobacco-stained hands, lifetime smoker Mark Norak rolls what could be his last cigarette as skyrocketing taxes force him to try to break a 44-year addiction.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The Wagga man, now 55, has rolled and smoked his own cigarettes since the age of 11.
But Mr Norak fears the federal government’s new cigarette tax – an increase of 12.5 per cent over the next four years, which will take a packet to $40 by 2020 – could spell the end of his addiction.
He labelled the hiked tobacco tax, revealed in Tuesday night’s budget, a “cash cow”.
“They’re worthless, useless mongrels pimping tobacco out to me, deriding me as a drug addict, but they take thousands of dollars out of my pocket every year for the privilege of being chemically-addicted,” Mr Norak said.
“They don’t want me to give up smoking. They want me to be a smoker.”
Mr Norak has already cut down smoking 40 a day to 25, which he blames on rising costs.
“I go without other things to feed my habit,” he said.
“I’m trying desperately to get rid of a 44-year addiction.”
But Greg Conkey, a Wagga councillor, who led a smoking ban proposal for the main street, believed the tax was a “step in the right direction”.
“Anything that turns people off is a positive move,” Cr Conkey said.
“People addicted to smoke, I do feel sorry for. It’s a big slug for them, but if turns people off, especially young people, it’s a step in the right direction.
“(Smokers) are an easy target. I’d like to see more educational programs rather than keep hitting their hip pockets.”
But local health exports believe increasingly expensive cigarettes and tobacco would drive down the number of smokers.
“Taxing tobacco products has been proven to be the most effective tobacco control measure for reducing consumption, and therefore saving lives,” Murrumbidgee Local Health District health promotion manager Christine May said.
“It may appear to disadvantage particular groups, however, the costs are huge to the smoker in terms of quality of life and to the health service and taxpayer in treating illnesses associated with smoking, such as cardiovascular disease and cancer.
“Two in every three smokers will die prematurely as a result of being a smoker.”