Australia upholds law on plain cigarette packaging
Australia’s highest court upholds a new government law which forces all cigarettes to be sold in olive green packaging with no logos or brand colours.
The decision means that from 1 December, cigarettes and tobacco products must be sold in plain olive green packets without special colourful branding.
Instead, packages must display graphic health warnings, including pictures of mouth cancer and other smoking-related illnesses.
Tobacco giants British American Tobacco, Britain’s Imperial Tobacco, Philip Morris and Japan Tobacco challenged the laws in Australia’s high court, claiming the rules were unconstitutional because they effectively extinguished their intellectual property rights.
In a brief statement, the high court said a majority of its seven judges believed the laws did not breach Australia’s constitution. A full judgment will be released later.
The laws are in line with World Health Organization recommendations and are being watched closely by Britain, Norway, New Zealand, Canada and India, who are considering similar measures to help fight smoking.
One billion smokers
The World Health Organization estimates that more than 1 billion people around the world are regular smokers, with 80 per cent in low and middle-income countries.
Australian Attorney-General Nicola Roxon hailed the ruling as “a watershed moment for tobacco control around the world”.
“The message to the rest of the world is big tobacco can be taken on and beaten,” said Roxon, whose father, a smoker, died of cancer when she was 10.
“Without brave governments willing to take the fight up to big tobacco, they’d still have us believing that tobacco is neither harmful nor addictive,” she said after the ruling.
In Indonesia, the government said it would like to follow Australia’s example. “That’s excellent… this is one way to protect the people,” Health Minister Nafsiah Mboi told Reuters.
However, an anti-tobacco campaigner said that would be difficult to achieve because of a strong industry lobby in Indonesia.
‘Little movement’
Tulus Abadi, head of the national commission on tobacco control, said there had been little movement from the government on a draft law to include graphic warnings on cigarette packets like those in Australia.
Indonesia’s approximately 65 million smokers consumed about 230 billion cigarettes in 2010. Cigarette packages there currently carry a written warning about the health dangers of smoking.
Graphic images of cancers and gum disease are also shown on packets in Thailand, where official figures showed 13 million adults smoked tobacco in 2011, including 46.6 pe cent of men.
An official at the Thai Ministry of Public Health, who asked not to be identified, said there were no plans to change existing packaging laws.
In India, where an estimated 175 million people smoke, there was no immediate official reaction.
In June, the country’s most populous state of Uttar Pradesh increased the value-added tax on cigarettes to 50 per cent from 17.5 per cent. Analysts say other states are likely to follow.
End to challenges
The Australian decision is still a blow to tobacco companies and ends any domestic Australian challenges to plain packaging. British American Tobacco Australia said the measures would fuel a black market for cigarettes.
“It’s still a bad law that will only benefit organized crime groups, which sell illegal tobacco on our streets,” BAT Australia spokesman Scott McIntyre said after the decision, his comments echoed by other companies involved.
McIntyre, however, said the company would comply with the laws.