In the most incongruous endorsement of a cause célèbre since the Victorian arm of the CFMEU’s 16 days of activism against family violence, former conservative pollster Mark Textor has joined the board of the Foundation for Alcohol Research and Education.

FARE descended from the original Alcohol Education and Research Foundation, established in 2001 by the Howard government. After raising $115 million in a beer excise hike subsequently blocked by the Senate after the brewers fomented a community backlash against the tax sting, the impost couldn’t practicably be refunded to individual tipplers.