Australia aims to halve smoking rate in 10 years

The Australian federal government is currently studying strict smoking control measures with the goal of reducing smoking rates by half within the next decade.

Federal Health Minister Mark Butler stated, "The tobacco industry promotes sales by making each cigarette attractive. We intend to remove this promotional advantage by requiring the design of cigarettes to be standardized with the unappealing labels already in place, through the modification of laws.

Health Minister Butler hopes to reduce the smoking rate to below 10% by 2025, and to 5% by 2030.

In 2012, Australia implemented plain packaging for all cigarette products, with standardized labeling. This was accompanied by increases in taxes for each cigarette, up to 1.14 Australian dollars (as of September 2022). These measures strengthened laws and taxation related to smoking.

According to the Cancer Council Victoria, the tax component of a standard Australian cigarette pack is 65%, which is among the highest rates in developed countries. In comparison, Japan imposes a 52% tax and the United States imposes a 35% tax on cigarettes.

However, according to a survey conducted by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, the proportion of daily smokers among Australians aged 14 and over was still 11% in 2019. Although this is a reduction of over half compared to the 24% recorded in 1991, there has not been a significant change compared to the 12.2% reported in 2016.

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