Fed: Howard admits ambiguous comment led to beer campaign

AAP General News (Australia)
04-06-2001
Fed: Howard admits ambiguous comment led to beer campaign

CANBERRA, April 6 AAP - Prime Minister John Howard today said an ambiguous comment
from him on radio about beer prices sparked the breweries' ultimately successful campaign
to cut excise.

Mr Howard said the government's original documentation said packaged beer would not
rise in cost by more than 1.9 per cent with the introduction of the GST, but a comment
he made on the subject was unclear.

"One of the answers I gave on a radio program was ambiguous, I've said that, and on
the basis of that the breweries ran a quite ferocious campaign," he told Melbourne radio
3AW.

The Australian Democrats and Labor this week forced the government to strike a deal
to cut over-the-bar beer prices and create a special foundation to target alcoholism.

But Mr Howard said the excise cut meant less money to spend on other things.

"We have less money to spend on other things - the Labor Party obviously believes that
refunding excise already collected is more important than spending that money on things
like education and health," he said.

AAP jb/daw/wjf/mg/br

KEYWORD: BEER HOWARD

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