Sorry, this service is currently unavailable. Please try again later.

Australia has long been recognized as a world leader in tobacco control. Our success can be attributed to the implementation of a series of tobacco control measures, such as increasing tobacco consumption, anti-smoking media campaigns, and the introduction of smoke-free laws.

Unfortunately, our position on the leaderboard looks set to decline. New Zealand’s stringent tobacco control measures announced under its smoke-free Aotearoa 2025 action plan will almost certainly disappoint us.

New Zealand will introduce some of the most stringent anti-smoking measures in the world. Credit: Quentin Jones

The New Zealand government announced on Thursday a new legislation under which people born after 2008 will never be able to legally buy tobacco. The country’s goal is to reduce its national smoking rate to 5% by 2025.

I can hear you thinking "Who cares? No one smokes anyway." Well, 2.9 million Australians disagree. This is the number of people aged 14 and over who reported currently smoking in 2019.

Smoking remains the main risk factor for death and disease in Australia. It will kill approximately 21,000 smokers each year and cause one in five cancer diagnoses. This will cost our economy US$136.9 billion annually, which is much higher than the US$14.75 billion generated by tobacco consumption.

In Australia, smoking is the leading cause of death and disease. Credit: Michelle Mosop

Despite these worrying statistics, Australia’s investment in evidence-based tobacco control measures has fallen far below international benchmarks. Our national tobacco strategy for 2012-2018 is outdated.

If Australia is to prevent as many as 1.6 million smokers from dying prematurely and achieve the goal of a smoking rate of less than 5% by 2030, we should follow New Zealand.

We must create a smokeless generation by prohibiting the sale, delivery, and supply of tobacco products to people born after a certain date, so that it is illegal to provide such products to these people even after they reach 18 years of age.

In accordance with the obligations under Article 14 of the World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, the development and implementation of an evidence-based national smoking cessation strategy is essential to ensure that people who want to quit are fully supported.

Tobacco industry gimmicks (such as menthol, crushed balls, sugar additives, and filters) make cigarettes more palatable, more addictive, and give the impression that the product is less harmful (spoiler warning: this is not the case) and should be eliminated.

The involvement of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people (with an estimated smoking rate of 43%) in leading tobacco control decisions is crucial.

The supply of tobacco products should be reduced by restricting who can sell these products and where they can be sold, so as to ensure that retailers do not gather in Australia's poorest communities.

Emerging tobacco products, such as heated tobacco, the industry claims to be less harmful, but are only a disguise used to circumvent increasingly stringent tobacco control measures and should continue to be banned.

In order to ensure that the absorption of e-cigarettes by young people will not continue to increase significantly, we must continue to monitor these harmful devices.

It seems simple, doesn't it? What will prevent Australia from passing legislation that saves millions of lives? Perhaps it is the fact that some political parties in Australia continue to accept donations.

Tobacco giant Philip Morris International donated $55,000 to the Nationals in 2019.

In June 2021, when the National Party received more than $200,000 in donations from Philip Morris International in the past five years, Deputy Prime Minister and National Party Leader Barnaby Joyce stated that cigarettes are a legal product. Morris International wants to donate to a political party to which they can donate.

As Big Tobacco has the firm support of some political parties, it looks like we will ship our crown of tobacco control to the Tasman River.

The Marlboro people once again defeated public health.

The morning newsletter is our guide to the most important and interesting stories, analyses and insights of the day. Register here.