Reforms proposed to overhaul packaging, marketing, and sale of cigarettes

ABC NEWS (Australia)

The legislation proposes new restrictions on tobacco packaging and additives, while also bringing vapes under advertising controls. Federal Health Minister Mark Butler says existing warnings on cigarette packages have become outdated.

Transcript

00:00 Today, more than 50 Australian families will lose a loved one to tobacco and the same tomorrow

00:07 and the day after and the day after that, which reminds us that in spite of all the

00:12 enormous progress over the last 50 years or so in tobacco control, the fight against big

00:16 tobacco is just not finished.

00:18 Today, I'll be introducing the first suite of major reforms in more than 12 years into

00:24 the Parliament.

00:26 People might remember 12 years ago, we led the world with our plain packaging reforms

00:31 that have since been followed by dozens of countries around the world.

00:35 But frankly, we're now lagging international best practice.

00:39 Leaders are now countries like Canada and New Zealand.

00:41 And as a result, we're advised we're not currently on track to meet our targets for smoking

00:47 reduction over the course of this decade.

00:49 And the reason why, essentially, is big tobacco has adapted.

00:53 They've innovated, they've been clever and cunning about getting around the intent of

00:57 the plain packaging reforms with new ways to make their product seem appealing or even

01:02 cool, particularly to young Australians.

01:04 And we're determined to take on all of those new marketing tactics and stamp them out.

01:10 We need to update the graphic warnings that the population, I'm advised, has become largely

01:16 desensitised to some of the warnings that were very shocking 12 years ago.

01:21 But the industry has also changed the look of their cigarettes and they've added flavours

01:27 and additives like menthol bombs, which means that as you smoke your cigarette, you get

01:31 a burst of minty freshness because there's a menthol capsule in there.

01:35 We want to stamp that out.

01:36 The look of cigarettes is very different today.

01:38 The so-called Vogue's that are very long, slim, bright white cigarettes that are deliberately

01:44 designed to look good on your Instagram shot.

01:47 We're going to stamp those out as well.

01:49 These are all very evidence based measures.

01:51 We've looked across the world.

01:52 We've consulted very widely about these and we're confident that this will get us back

01:57 on track for our national tobacco strategy to keep driving down those rates of smoking

02:02 even further.

02:03 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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