MONEY UP IN SMOKE

I probably shouldn't admit it but I really enjoy smoking. Yeah, I know it's bad for me, makes me stink and makes other people sick and contributes to global warming, but I enjoy it. Now it emerges I'm costing taxpayers money:

New figures show smoking is responsible for almost 300,000 hospital visits each year, at a cost of almost $700 million.

The best I can figure that leaves the government over $4 billion in front:

Revenue attributable to tobacco products collected by the Australian Tax Office’s (ATO’s) Excise Business Line (EBL) in 2000–01 totalled A$4.8 billion, ($5.09 billion estimated for 2003-04) which accounted for 24 per cent of total excise collections in that year.

I blame Kerry Packer.