AUSTRALIA IS to become the world’s first country to ban logos and branding on cigarette packets, in a move tobacco companies say will increase the black market trade.
Excise duty on cigarettes sold in Australia was also increased by 25 per cent from midnight last night, adding $2.16 (€1.51) to the price of the common 30 pack.
Plain packaging, which will be introduced from July 1st, 2012, will mean cigarette packets will all be the same colour and carry large, graphic health warnings. The brand name will appear in a small font. The font style and size and the position of the brand will be uniform.
Australian prime minister Kevin Rudd said the government had made “the right decision”.
“The new branding for cigarettes will be the most hardline regime in the world and cigarette companies will hate it,” he said.
Health professionals say the new legislation could result in a million fewer smokers in Australia by 2020.
Rob Moodie, chairman of the National Preventative Health Taskforce, told ABC radio that, in conjunction with other measures, plain packaging could reduce smoking to low levels.
“It has to be also included with good social marketing, restrictions on exposure to second-hand smoke, to taxation and pricing increases, but certainly the studies that have already been done show that people do respond to them,” Prof Moodie said. “If we can get to below 10 per cent [of the population smoking] – a million fewer smokers by 2020 – that would be a marvellous result.”
British American Tobacco Australia opposes the plan, which it says could increase the black market in cigarettes and lead to more underage smoking.
Imperial Tobacco Australia says it is considering its legal options.
“Introducing plain packaging just takes away the ability of a consumer to identify our brand from another brand and that’s of value to us,” spokeswoman Cathie Keogh said. “It really affects the value of our business as a commercial enterprise and we will fight to support protecting our international property rights.”
Tobacco advertising has been outlawed in Australia since 1990 and smoking is banned in most enclosed public spaces such as offices and restaurants. About 21 per cent of Australian men smoke and 18 per cent of women.
Mr Rudd said 15,000 Australians died of smoking-related diseases every year and that tobacco use cost the country $31.5 billion annually in healthcare and lost productivity.