A picture posted to Reddit showed two pint glasses of ginger ale at a Melbourne pub that were priced at $42.40. 

Other Reddit users were equally horrified at the price. 

“I have refused pints at this price before. I ask now. Refusing is easy. Just a polite, ‘on second thoughts, no thank you’,” one person commented. 

“Doesn’t surprise me. A pub in South Melbourne charges $11.50 for a pint of lemon, lime and bitters. It made me bitter, that’s for sure,” another added. 

“Just had a week in Sydney and pints of beer at most pubs were about $10-$12 and large coffees were $4.50. Is Melbourne just taking the p***, or are overheads genuinely that much more expensive?” another asked. 

“I am moving to Melbourne from Ireland and these prices for pints frighten me. And pints in Ireland ain’t cheap either,” one person pointed out. 

Another person claimed that they went to a club on the weekend where they were charged $56 for two vodka raspberries. 

According to the Consumer Price Index, the average cost of alcohol in Australia rose 6.6 per cent between August 2023 and 2024. 

In August, the spirit tax was lifted to $103.89 per litre. 

Australia has the third highest spirits tax in the world, behind Iceland and Norway. 

The excise tax, the tax charged on spirits and beer, varies depending on the alcohol content of each drink. 

The excise tax rates are adjusted twice a year based on the movement of inflation.