Tag: tobacco control
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Eight ANZJPH articles that made headlines in 2025
Hollie Harwood Each year over 1.1 million readers visit and download articles from the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health (ANZJPH). While our journal citations measure impact, they don’t capture one of ANZJPH’s unique strengths – the way that our evidence-based articles influence policy and practice, support advocacy,…
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Playing the long game: 40 years of Quit
Thomas Kehoe Australia is lauded for its leadership in the global fight against tobacco. This is exemplified in passing new tobacco control interventions to tackle tobacco induced disease, which began on 1 July. Measures include graphic health warnings on cigarette packs and sticks, and a ban on menthol and other…
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Recent promising developments in tobacco and vaping consumption
Malcolm Baalman The tobacco industry is running a targeted campaign to persuade the government to freeze or reverse the level of taxation on tobacco products, based around leveraging the existence of an illicit market into a political argument. There is nothing particularly recent or novel about the latest Australian campaign.…
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Explainer: tobacco excise and illicit markets
Malcolm Baalman The tobacco retail industry is running a targeted campaign to persuade the federal government to freeze or reverse the level of taxation on tobacco products. Industry voices argue that Australian tobacco taxation is high by international standards, and that the decade of steady increases has boosted the illicit…
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How language shapes the fight against the Tobacco Industry
Raglan Maddox, Michelle Scollo, Kylie Lindorff, and Melissa Jones Language is powerful. It shapes community perceptions as well as academic, media, and political narratives. Through this mechanism, it influences political appetite for particular programs and policies. The Tobacco Industry sells a product that is not only uniquely dangerous but also…
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Can we eradicate commercial tobacco disease and death?
Raglan Maddox and Michelle Kennedy The commercial Tobacco Industry continues to profit off addiction, disease, and death, perpetuating health inequities. For over 70 years, we have known that when used as directed, commercial tobacco products kill. Australia has been a leader in tobacco control through plain packaging, tax reforms, and…
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Parliament overhauls national tobacco law
Malcolm Baalman, Public Health Association of Australia Arguably the most important item of public health legislation to be addressed by our national Parliament in over a decade was finally approved by the Senate last week. The Public Health (Tobacco and Other Products) Bill 2023 is the result of a 4-year…
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Fully revised tobacco law will put us back on target
By Malcolm Baalman Senior Policy and Advocacy Adviser, PHAA A major piece of public health legislation is making its way through Parliament this month. In November 2022, to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the introduction of plain packaging in Australia, Minister for Health Mark Butler, announced that the Government would consolidate into…
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It’s time for tobacco retailers to pay a higher fee
PHAA New research has prompted experts to call on all Australian Governments to adopt a higher standard of tobacco licensing regulation, including higher fees, to help drive down smoking rates. Tobacco licensing was changed significantly in South Australia in January 2007, when the annual cost of retail tobacco licences rose…
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Aotearoa provides guidance on the next phase of tobacco control measures in Australia: more of the same is not enough
Dr Raglan Maddox, Catherine Manning, Prof Raymond Lovett, Assoc Prof Lisa Whop, Selah Hart, Dr Michelle Kennedy, Assoc Prof El-Shadan Tautolo, Shane Kawenata Bradbrook, Prof Tom Calma AO and Anaru Waa What is Aotearoa/New Zealand doing? Māori in Aotearoa/New Zealand were among the first to call for a Tupeka Kore (tobacco…
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‘Dispelling the smoke to reflect the mirror’: the time is now to eliminate tobacco related harms
Helen Tran, PHAA Intern A recently published commentary by Maddox et al in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health highlights the opportunity that has presented itself for a “smoke free future” and nicotine free generations. A future which is looking more possible with Australia’s recent Consultation Draft…
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An election campaign bereft of prevention efforts that could save lives: Daube
Emeritus Professor Mike Daube AO, PHAA President (2007-2010) Another day, another election spending announcement. Both major parties are promising funding for all manner of purposes – billions for national programs, millions for local projects – even $4.5 million for a Tasmanian distillery. In recent times politicians from all reputable parties…
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Powerful pair recognised for decades of persistence at tobacco control
Paris Lord – PHAA Editor’s note: this Intouch post is longer than usual, but is worth your time, particularly if you can remember how ubiquitous smoking and its advertising was in Australia, and the efforts it took to counter that. It’s New Year’s Day 1992. Ascot race course, Perth.…
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National Preventive Health Strategy: realising the opportunity to improve Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health outcomes by addressing tobacco use
With the Commonwealth Government’s National Preventive Health Strategy due for finalisation in the coming months, Dr Raglan Maddox, Professor Tom Calma AO, Dr Katherine Thurber and Associate Professor Raymond Lovett consider the opportunity to improve Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health outcomes through a renewed urgent focus on tobacco use.…
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Tobacco control was the best buy in health then, and it’s still the best buy now: an interview with Dr Michael Wooldridge
Michael Wooldridge and Paul Grogan Image: German brother drivers Michael Schumacher on left and Ralf Schumacher walk along the track after the traditional drivers’ photo session at the Australian Formula One Grand Prix in Melbourne, Sunday, March 9, 1997. (AP Photo/Steve Holland) The late 1990s marked a turning…