The Australian public are voting with their feet when it comes to smoking. Consumers now demand safe working and social settings free from the scourge of second hand smoke. Smoking has continued to decline to 16.1% of adults and 4.2 per cent amongst 15-17 year olds.
Our knowledge of the impact of smoking, not only on the individual but on those that surround them, has encouraged the Australian public in the fight to Quit.
It is taxpayer dollars that are spent in educating the public, encouraging and assisting smokers to quit, instituting smoke free zones and battling big tobacco in court cases against plain packaging. So how are we going in this battle to rid ourselves of tobacco and its health impacts?
Evidently the Federal Government would rather not say.
For the first time, the Government insists they cannot publish data on tobacco tax receipts due to confidentiality.
In his excellent article “Show us the data on tobacco sales”, Simon Chapman, professor of public health at the University of Sydney, questions the government’s drivers and explains why the release of such data is crucial. This is important not only for Australia but also globally.
Read Simon’s full article here.
Have forwarded the original article for consideration to federal Health Minister + cc to a couple of other ACT federal politicians who should be on-side. Since advent of GST, we no longer have sales data reported by State/Territory. USA requires tobacco companies to report their advertising and promotion expenditures, too.