They need to make the revenue to cover your health bills later in life when it comes back on you.

 Love it, make them $100 a packet.

the sooner cigarettes disappear and I’m free to breathe without copping second hand smoke the better.

the fact people continue to smoke despite knowing the risks to their health and the health of others is rather alarming.

It’s a shame the government makes so much revenue from smokes other wise they might actually ban them.

 ha ha. 

very rarely drink so they dont make money off me that way, i spose i gotta give the govt a bit of my money over top of what they already take

 Mate seriously. You bag someone for starting a thread on cricket, now you start a thread about this shit. 

my meth dealer put his prices up too, Fkn prick. Now i I have to break into more houses to get a decent bag of shards.

I know you’ll all say to give it up, but it’s soooo worth it long term.

 Im going to say give them up. Watched my dad pass away from Lung and Liver cancer and ill tell you right now it was the most traumatic thing ive ever seen, not nice at all and took me many years to come to terms with. Do it for your families sake.

 And without question the best thing I ever did. Food tastes way better, health way way way better ......financially the difference is truly stunning as I was smoking 60 a day when I quit !

 And you'll  soon quit.

 Instead of naming the is thread "how can they justify it" you should rename it something relevant like "tax on gaspers raised-whinge".
Because of the heading I opened this to have a look at what it was and now feel compelled to make a comment.

Which is;

Are you seriously so tired of living that you will continue smoking despite the financial and health cost?
Your kids and grand kids will be scarred for life watching you rot out from the inside out like on those ads.

But keep on doing it, and complaining about the cost.
NOBODY in this day and age can say anymore that they didnt know the consequences.

Respect yourself...

 Easy to bag the government out for raising the prices of smokes, but i bet there will be no complaining when a government hospital is treating a cigarette driven condition for free to save your life, or when the govenment is employing council workers etc to clean up the cigarette buts and empty boxs that get turfed out the window of the car or stubbed out on the street.

Tripple the price i reccon, then maybe we cover a 5th of what the costs are.

 Grow some tobacco in your back yard. Thats what i do in Seabird. But watch out because getting caught the fines are worse that growing the devils lettuce.

Tough crowd

Try to distract yourself throughout the day to smoke less. Apparently some people find chewing gum to be effective 

 Fish don’t like the smell of nicotine either. Smokers catch less fish. 

 How can they justify this! 

I think old Rusty just gave himself the Rusty fish hook. 

 A bit harsh there fellas, Russ has a genuine whine and your all over him like a ticket scalper outside a ground!, OK its great your all so concerned bout his lungs and bits, but most of us wouldn't be here but for for durries and alccy hol due to them being the ice breakers and leg openers of the day, ( sorry for the crudeness lady's) , and yes one day one day poor old Russ maybe getting some of all that tax he has payed  back but give the guy a break, the old fire water kills more than coffin nails land how many of you anti puffers drink? I have never smoked but I defend Russes choice to which site he has a whinge on , and in my books , its this one , ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, cheers.

russ ,
being a democratic society i reckon you have all rights to smoke if you wish , your choice to do it knowing it will affect your health and most likly shorten your life , while costing you plenty of muhla along the way to that end

however i also think the rest of us who dont smoke or drink too much and generally try to live healthily , should not carry any burden for those who do ''choose to knowingly bugger their health up , and complain about it lol

i reckon into the future as costs in health continue to escalate by billions , its very likly , you will see a change in medicare that make those who smoke or ''choose to live a lifestyle they know has advers affects on their health to pay a higher medicare levy that the rest

a sliding scale levy based on a persons choices that affect their uptake of the health system ,

just amatter of time as the gov look at ways to get more coin ,

 Pack a day x 365 = 12775 per annum . That’s a bucketload of boat fuel n bait in my books !. Think of it as free fishing reward for a better healthier lifestyle with a ( maybe ) longer life expectancy . If that’s not going to motivate you then keep smoking and enjoy a wheelchair with an oxygen bottle on the back sooner rather than later . Harsh yes , realistic yes . 

 I smoke and I also surf, dive, work(scaffolder), fish and fuck, and It doesn't affect my ability to do these things at all, and the pussy still tastes as good as when I was fifteen! 

I'm with you Russ, roll on mate hahaha

Health aside - I just don't know how you justisfy it mate based on the numbers!
They are not actually costing you 35 a packet - more like 45-50 as you are paying for them in after tax income.
Just doing some rough numbers - assume you have been a smoker since you were say 20's and I assume you are now around 55?
*Smoking 2-3 packs a week on average over that period
*I looked at average prices since 1989 - see link http://www.tobaccoinaustralia.org.au/13-3-the-price-of-tobacco-products-in-australia
And then applied the average interest rate over this period of 6.5% - in reality a mortgage would have been a lot higher but I am being conservative
Since 1989 if you had not smoked you would have saved ~110,000 in after tax income - in reality you would have saved a lot more as if you had invested it in anything that was compounding frequently (term deposit) or an equity based fund the returns would be a lot higher - or if you had a mortgage the reverse is true - the frequent payments would save you from the compounding effects of interest.
That's the bad news - good news is if you give up now you will save ~95k in the next 10 years (based on the price of a pack moving to $50 over that period) - buy a nice boat for that :-)

 Smokers will save money for the government they die 10 to 15 years earlier than those who don't. To live longer is more expensive for the government coffers with the PBS and Medicare cost soaring as non smokers live longer smokers actually pay for them.

Jeez I thought with the mount of time you spend on here putting pointless threads up and commenting on everything you wouldn't have time to smoke we have holes in the ground, stingray hook ups and a bloody smoking thread
Maybe we should open a Faulkner family forum topic so nobody has to bother wasting time with utter unrelated crap

Try facebook mate then I don't see this shit you'd be real busy then

 Old Callum goes boom and gives it both barrels. 

This is great,  now the footy season is over this is top end entertainment. 

 I know Callum personally... one of the most 

nicest layed back fella I know!! 

Take note ...

 Remember Tom Cat

Dont remember Tom Cat but remeber Kingfisha, city slicker and that legend from Rocko who can skipper a dinghy in the wildest storms.

 Kingfisha always took all

the necessary precorshions

 Did anyone catch tonights nailbiter?

 I was just drinking piss with him in the Denmark tav! 

No shit!

 Prices went up because a lot of people have turned to Vape so there loosing revenue . They are trying hard to shut down Vape shops. 

Keep your chin up russ. It's the topic

thats getting it )  not you you personallykeep on posting up the reports ! 

Anyway on the beach last night tailor 

came in manage 2 and drop a couple

high 40s ! Bait for a night fish !

cheers pirate