Former prime minister Tony Abbott told Liberal Party members in Tasmania that Bill Shorten's Labor Opposition plans to bring in "five new taxes" if elected.
Mr Abbott's claim is spin. Mr Abbott used broad language, requiring Fact Check to make a number of assumptions. A "worker" is taken to be someone in a non-managerial job, with an income less than $70,000 a year. Statistics show that most smokers are "workers", and they will end up paying more tax. Because the increase will constitute a higher proportion of a "worker's" pay, it will have a greater impact on a "worker's" household budget than a higher income earner. But the data also shows that around 80 per cent of "workers" do not smoke and so will not be affected. Given smoking rates are higher among groups of people with other characteristics, such as being unemployed, on Mr Abbott's argument, tobacco excise increases could equally be described as an "tax on the unemployed".
Fact check: Is Labor's increased tobacco excise a 'workers tax'?
['Tony_Abbott', 'Bill_Shorten', 'Australian_Labor_Party', 'Tasmania', 'Liberal_Party_of_Australia']