Treasurer Wayne Swan has revealed the alcopop "scene" is one he is very familiar with and stands by the government's moves to raise the excise on the technicoloured drinks.
The opposition says raising the tax, which will net the government an extra $3 billion, is more about the health of the budget surplus and has vowed to block the move in the Senate.
The federal government, however, maintains the 70 per cent rise in the excise on pre-mixed alcoholic drinks is aimed at curbing binge drinking, particularly among teenage girls, and is not a tax grab.
Mr Swan said on Sunday it was his own experience with teenagers and drinking that influenced his decision to crack down on alcopops.
"I have teenage children," he told Channel Ten.
He was then asked if they drank a lot of alcopops.
"Well they do, and they do mix in that scene, and I have observed that scene a lot," Mr Swan said.
"Some of these alcopops are quite dangerous because what you have is a mix which disguises the alcohol content."
Critics have claimed the alcopops price rise is a tax grab given the government's own modelling shows consumption of the drinks will continue to rise.
There have also been claims young binge drinkers will simply switch to cheaper alcohol, a suggestion Health Minister Nicola Roxon rejected on Sunday.
"We don't think there'll be a simple change-over, because we know many young people simply don't like the taste of beer or straight alcohol," she said.
"That will be a good thing if it delays some people from having their first introduction to alcohol, or if it puts them off drinking for a number of years. That will have a positive impact."
Opposition leader Brendan Nelson ramped up his attack on the alcopops tax on Sunday, saying health organisations only supported the move because they falsely believed the revenue would go to prevention programs.
"Most of those (health) organisations were ... led to believe that the additional money raised would actually be spent on drug and alcohol treatment programs and that is clearly not going to be the case," Dr Nelson told ABC Television.
"This is nothing more than $3 billion of an alco-con which is falsely misleading people into believing that this will deal with the problem, it most certainly won't and arguably it will make it worse."
Mr Swan denied the alcopops tax increase was a con.
He said the increase would target binge drinking, particularly among young women.
It would also close a tax loophole created by the Liberals in 2000 which had been a gift to the alcopops industry, he said.
Ms Roxon also defended the alcopop tax, saying Opposition Leader Brendan Nelson was becoming isolated in his stance against the Rudd government policy.
It was revealed in Fairfax newspapers on Sunday that former Howard Government minister John Herron, now chairman of the Australian National Council on Drugs, wrote to Prime Minister Kevin Rudd last week congratulating him on increasing the tax on alcopops.
"What I think is becoming clear is that Mr Nelson is isolated, not only among health professionals, not only among parents, but isolated amongst the Liberal Party in opposing this measure," Ms Roxon told reporters in Melbourne.
"We believe it is a measure that can have a positive health impact ... and we stand by the need to do it."
