The Rudd government yesterday breathed new life into the smoking debate with the double-barrelled announcement that tobacco tax was jumping up by 25% effective at midnight and that tobacco would be sold in plain packaging from January 2012.
Tobacco taxes are a proven cornerstone of tobacco control policy and have a long track record of preventing young people from starting and inciting current smokers to quit. Plain packaging, however, is without international precedence and positions Australia as a global leader in public health reform.
Putting the accolades and triumphant high fives aside, what does plain packaging actually mean? Contrary to the musings of the conservative think-tank, Institute of Public Affairs, plain packaging does not equate to acquiring the intellectual property of tobacco companies.
Tobacco companies will still maintain full rights to their logos and brand imagery; they will simply no longer be able to use these marketing tools on cigarette packages. And, while a pack of smokes in 2012 won’t be wrapped in comforting beach scenes or a high-tech metallic sheen, it will feature bigger and even more graphic health warnings.
Unsurprisingly, every conceivable arm of the cigarette manufacturing and retailing sector has weighed in on why plain packaging will cause the very sky to fall.
The executive director of the Australasian Association of Convenience Stores showed heartfelt concern for convenience store employees as “many are new entrants to the workforce and immigrants. They rely on visual cues for product selection and we have real concerns for retailers as they struggle to restock and service consumers when legal products are unable to be quickly differentiated from each other”.
The Council of Small Business Organisations of Australia said there was “simply no need for these extreme measures in order for the government to pursue the health outcomes it desires”. No advice on what non-extreme measures could be used to cut smoking targets to less than 10% by 2020.
The tobacco industry itself was mostly tight-lipped on the issue, with Imperial Tobacco one of the few companies to provide the public comment. The company stated in its press release that it, “will make every effort to protect its brands and associated intellectual property and including, if necessary, take legal action”.
Plain packaging was removed from the public health agenda in the early 1990s due to tobacco industry bolstering swift legal action. In 2010, it seems governments won’t be so easily scared off by this legal hot air.
Becky Freeman and Simon Chapman are from the School of Public Health at the University of Sydney
Nice to see us leading the world in something.
We use to be good at that. But in recent decades we have been dragging our feet in so many issues. Australia and New Zealand were the first countries in the world to allow women to vote. They were the first to introduce secret ballot. Australia was the first (and is still the only) democracy in the world to have compulsory voting.
We can not boast so well in other areas: fighting climate change; clean energy production; not protecting old growth forests; not protecting endangered species; and more.
But one small victory and example for others to consider: cigarette packaging.
Preventing intellectual property from being displayed is not ‘acquiring’ it. They can use their brand images in different markets – no acquisition there.
The IPA is not a ‘conservative’ think tank, they are a neo-liberal one – society exists to serve the market in their view. But society is about to tell the cigarette market to blow smoke up someone else’s market….
I had tears in my eyes reading about the desperate plight of convenience store workers standing in bewilderment before an array of cigarette packs. Is there no end to man’s inhumanity to his fellow man?
As a very junior member of BUGAUP (Billboard Utilising Graffitists Against Unhealthy Promotions) back in the big hair days I applaud the latest steps to rid ourselves of this burning, chemical-saturated weed.
I don’t know why tobacco companies are being given a full 18 months to comply. I’d have thought 6 months would have been adequate.
Ah, BUGAUP. That campaign used to keep me amused as my train passed numerous billboards each day.