Daryl Melham (Banks, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Mental Health and Ageing. As the minister responsible for medical research, what evidence is there to support the government's move to introduce plain packaging for tobacco products?

Mark Butler (Port Adelaide, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Mental Health and Ageing) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank my good friend the member for Banks for his question. Recent research shows that smoking kills over 15,000 Australians every year and costs Australia around $31.5 billion per year. Both active and passive smoking increase the risk of lung cancer as well as 12 other cancers and a range of other health conditions. Reducing this impact is a priority for our government. This issue should not be dragged into a political scuffle designed to mask the level of financial contributions made by tobacco companies to the Liberal Party—or at least to the federal Liberal Party, if not all branches.

Most Australian smokers regret having started smoking at all and have made at least one attempt to quit. We need to support people to successfully quit and we know that plain packaging is a key step. I can point to 12 key different research studies only in the last two years covering the issues of branding, design and the promotion of tobacco packaging. Each and every one of them supports strategies such as the introduction of plain packaging to assist in reducing smoking rates. Just a few titles: 'Adolescents' perceptions of cigarette brand image: does plain packaging make a difference?' in the Journal of Adolescent Health; 'The impact of cigarette package design on perceptions of risk', from the Journal of Public Health; and 'Plain packaging: findings from female youth in the UK', a paper presented at the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco. I table the list.

Other research shows that plain packaging will increase the impact of health warning messages, will reduce the ability of packaging to mislead consumers to believe that some products may be less harmful than others and will reduce the attractiveness of the tobacco product for adults but particularly for children. A 2008 evaluation of Australia's graphic health warnings on tobacco products showed that more than six in 10 recent quitters said that the graphic health warnings had helped them to quit, but respondents also said that tobacco industry branding and the use of colour on packaging overpowered the graphic health warnings, particularly on the front of the package. The campaign run by tobacco companies throughout the debate on the introduction of plain packaging proves that they are concerned about the impact of this measure in reducing smoking rates in our community due to the inevitable impact it is going to have on their sales figures. There is no other explanation.

We cannot and we must not sacrifice the health of our community in favour of profits for tobacco companies. This government is committed to the health and the wellbeing of Australians. The evidence is very clear that this measure will reduce smoking in Australia and it is about time that the opposition—the whole of the opposition—stopped mucking around and got behind this world-leading measure.