Australia’s health minister Mark Butler is trying to push tougher tobacco laws through Parliament. Photo credit: Australian Government Department of Health and Aged Care
The Australian government introduced new tobacco control legislation into Parliament. If passed, the new laws would require:
- Updated graphic warnings on packaging, including extending warnings to individual cigarettes;
- Standardizing the size of tobacco packets and products;
- Preventing the use of additives in tobacco products such as menthols;
- Standardizing the design and look of filters;
- Limiting the use of appealing names that imply reduced harm;
- Requiring health promotion inserts in packs and pouches;
- Increasing transparency of tobacco sales volumes, product contents, and advertising and promotional activities;
- Advertising restrictions on vapes
The new laws will come into effect from April 1, 2024. The industry will be given a year to comply with the requirements, while retailers will be given a further three months.
The government is hoping to bring the national smoking rate to less than 10% by 2025 and 5% or less by 2030, and to 27% or less by 2030 for First Nations people.
Health minister Mark Butler said, “Australia has been a leader in public health measures to discourage smoking, but after a decade of inaction, the gains of Labor’s world-leading plain packaging laws have been squandered. This legislation will allow Australia to reclaim its position as a world leader on tobacco control.”