Ms Catherine King (Ballarat, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Health and Medicare) Share this | Hansard source

It is with pleasure that I rise to speak on the Tobacco Plain Packaging Amendment Bill 2018. Labor has a proud record when it comes to tobacco control. Worldwide, tobacco is the leading cause of preventable death and kills at least five million people a year. In Australia, smoking kills between 15,000 and 20,000 people every single year. The economic and social cost of smoking is estimated at $31.5 billion a year. By any measure, and despite all of the progress we have achieved over many decades, it remains a massive public health issue. It is an issue that requires political leadership and eternal vigilance.

Labor has shown consistent leadership on this issue, even when it has been politically very difficult to achieve. We've stood up to big tobacco, despite their formidable resources and significant campaign abilities. Despite their willingness to use dirty tricks to take legal action, we took them on. It was Labor that introduced and fought for the world-leading plain packaging legislation that, alongside other policies, has helped to drive smoking rates in this country to record lows. We are very proud that many other countries across the world have followed suit.

This legislation before us today makes some minor technical changes to Labor's laws, and we will, of course, support it. Put simply, the amendments expand the range of people who can be authorised to undertake plain-packaging compliance activities. There will be no objection from us on that. But we do know that, deep down, many on the other side would actually like to tear up this legislation altogether. On this, as on so many other things, they are divided. Despite the clear evidence that our legislation for plain packaging has worked and has clearly saved lives, many on the other side still think that this is 'nanny state' policy. It shows that they don't understand public health policy or evidence based health policy. But, as we know, that is what the Liberals and the Nationals so often do; they put big business before the wellbeing of the Australian people.

Let's talk about how successful not just this policy but also tobacco mitigation policies have been. We introduced plain packaging for tobacco in December 2012 to help Australians quit smoking. Under the laws, tobacco products have no branding and feature health warnings with graphic images. It works by reducing the appeal and brand identification of smoking, particularly for young people.

In 2016 the Commonwealth's post-implementation review of Labor's laws found:

… plain packaging is achieving its aim of improving public health in Australia and is expected to have substantial public health outcomes into the future.

In the three years after our laws came into effect, total tobacco consumption rates fell by 18.3 per cent. Not all of this decline was due to plain packaging, of course, but some of it definitely was. The report said:

… the 2012 packaging changes resulted in a "statistically significant decline in smoking prevalence …

We never sought to claim that plain packaging was a silver bullet. It was always meant to be one of a suite of measures necessary to continue to drive down smoking rates. It reflected the removal of the last form of advertising for tobacco, in line with the World Health Organization's tobacco convention, to which we are a signatory.

The British Medical Journal stated:

The evidence suggests that plain packaging is severely restricting the ability of the pack to communicate and create appeal with young people and adults.

One of the world's most respected medical journals declared Labor's world-leading plain-packaging laws to be a casebook example of effective tobacco control.

A report led by the ANU last year also confirmed that plain packaging had helped many smokers to quit. It led to a decline in the way that smokers identified with their brand, resulting in a reduction in smoking and an increase in the number of smoker attempts to quit the habit. We know that the more attempts people make to quit, the more likely they are to actually quit. It led to a decline in the way smokers identify their brand. The ANU found that, during the phase-in of the reforms, calls to quit smoking helplines increased by up to 78 per cent and were above average for about 10 months after the reforms began.

Studies have shown plain packaging has had a particular impact in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities as well. Smoking contributes to one in five Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander deaths. Public health researchers found Indigenous people were better informed about the risks of smoking as a result of the policy. Before the policy's introduction, they were significantly more likely to mistakenly think that some brands of cigarettes were less harmful than others. The World Health Organization is calling on all countries in the world to follow Australia's lead and to introduce plain packaging. The countries that have already done so include France, the United Kingdom and Ireland. Many countries will undoubtedly follow.

The Heart Foundation said that tobacco plain packaging had contributed to around 25 per cent of the total decline in the prevalence of smoking since it was introduced in 2012. That's tens of thousands of people quitting thanks to the Labor Party's efforts. Crucially, we've seen adolescent smoking rates drop to a record low. The tobacco industry tried to fight it, taking Australia all the way to the WTO to try and kill off these reforms. They failed, of course, but the fact that they tried might be the best evidence anyone needs that our policy was the right one and that our policy was, in fact, effective; otherwise, why would these companies have attempted to kill it off?

Thanks in part to Labor's groundbreaking policy work, the prevalence of daily smoking in Australia is now at just 12 per cent and continuing to decline. That is a good public health achievement. However, it has to be said that the rate of the decline has unfortunately slowed. That's because, for the last five years, we have had a government that has done nothing about tobacco control. No single measure will drive rates of smoking down forever. As one prominent public health expert noted recently, each new measure magnifies the effects of what has gone before but only if action is continually reinforced and properly resourced.

Tobacco control is one of Australia's best public health successes, but there is absolutely no room for complacency. That's because big tobacco companies are relentless. They never stop. They're always looking for new ways to hook new customers, even while they're publicly claiming that they're cleaning up their business—or even making plans to get out of smoking altogether—particularly in the guise of harm minimisation. They are morally bankrupt and cannot be believed. Here at home, they are still lobbying and using front groups. They are still using astroturfing campaigns. They are still walking the corridors of this place, taking any opportunity they can to meet with and influence members here; they do not meet with me. They're more likely than ever to use litigation to fight public health measures against governments and against other public institutions like universities. They are still buying and co-opting some so-called health experts. They're still trying to buy off journalists with expensive junkets and with hospitality. Overseas, in many less-developed and less-regulated markets, they are still advertising and selling their products with total immunity, even to primary school children. They are ruthless.

But, wherever you look, this government has zero credibility when it comes to tackling smoking related deaths. For five years, they have been absolutely missing in action. As Professor Mike Daube from Curtin University wrote recently:

For those who worked long and hard to make Australia a world leader in tobacco control, it is deeply disappointing that political complacency in recent years has both led to lack of action and allowed distractions to dominate the public and policy arenas.

He goes on:

We should have reinforced and capitalised on the early impact of plain packaging and reinforced the impacts of tax increases … but action over the past 6 years has stalled, at a time when it should have accelerated. … … …

First, crucially and inexplicably, there have been no national media campaigns since 2012. The federal government gets more than $11 billion a year in revenue from tobacco taxes. Spending $40 million on media campaigns would be less than 0.4% of this.

That is correct. For its entire time in office, this government has not bothered to launch any antitobacco campaigns, even though we know they are highly successful. We all remember the many successful campaigns, like, 'Every cigarette is doing you damage.' All of those campaigns have actually had a significant impact. There has not been one in the term of this government. We need more major, hard-hitting media campaigns, one of the most effective weapons that we have in our arsenal.

Professor Daube goes on to point out that over the last five years there has been a complete absence of new evidence-based measures to tackle smoking—nothing at all. He also talks about how there have been no curbs on tobacco industry efforts to influence public policy. He mentions lobbying and, of course, political donations. It's now been 14 years since Labor announced we would no longer take political donations from Big Tobacco. It took nearly 10 years for the Liberals to match us on that. But, shamefully, the National Party still have not done the right thing and ceased taking donations from Big Tobacco. As recently as last year, they took $15,700 from Big Tobacco companies. That is disgraceful.

The Prime Minister needs to explain why he thinks it's okay that his coalition partners can fill their coffers with money from companies that profit from putting Australians in coffins. How can he in good conscience keep a Nationals senator with responsibility for rural health while her party is happy to accept this blood money? People in rural and remote areas of Australia are twice as likely to be daily smokers as those in the cities, meaning the burden of disease falls most heavily on our rural Australians. If the Nationals really cared about the health of people in the bush they would reject these donations outright.

Malcolm Turnbull has gone from this place now, but he never explained his failure to divest from three share market funds that invest in tobacco. It was important that he did so. Again, I think it's important that we absolutely back in the work of people like Bronwyn King, a wonderful woman who I think is in the parliament at the moment. She has been doing fantastic work in getting superannuation portfolios to divest themselves of tobacco shares. She has slowly taken that work across Australia, and there are more and more super funds that are divesting themselves of tobacco shares. She has now taken that effort globally. Under her terrific leadership and the work that she has done, there will soon be very few superannuation funds left that will invest in tobacco at all. This is another example of the great work of public health people. Bronwyn is an oncologist who took the decision to leave her oncology in order to pursue that particular work.

The coalition, frankly, have done very little. While they've taken their eye off the ball, tobacco companies have been coming up with new ways to advertise and hook our children on these deadly products. Just last week we saw a series of reports about how tobacco companies are using social media influencers to advertise cigarettes, circumventing our strict anti-advertising laws. Our antismoking advertising laws threaten companies with fines of up to $126,000 if they advertise their products. But thanks to this social media loophole they can do it with virtual impunity. They're using the same marketing playbook they have always used to attract kids and teens to their products. It is insidious and something needs to be done about it. There are glamorous ads of attractive people in exotic locations sucking back on cigarettes on Instagram, a platform that reaches millions of people worldwide with virtually no regulation. They use celebrities and models and seek to associate smoking with fast cars, yachts, fancy clothes and expensive champagne. It is exactly the sort of thing previous generations of policymakers fought to outlaw and, unfortunately, in this medium it is making a comeback. Tobacco control experts have called these campaigns the greatest threat to how young people perceive tobacco products today. They say the tobacco companies are targeting young people in at least 40 countries, including here in Australia. Researchers say those campaigns generated over 25 billion views by individuals. Twenty-five billion views is a serious problem. Sadly, you can't rely on this government to do anything. Only Labor takes these issues of tobacco control seriously.

The big tobacco companies have also been trying to push new nicotine vaping and e-cigarette products onto the market. They try to claim it is some sort of public good and they are contributing to cessation. In fact, they're using every tactic they can to try and push to market more addictive products that have not been properly studied for their long-term health effects. The most authoritative report on this issue, from the US National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, concluded that the evidence for cessation benefits is limited and the evidence for concern about their impact is, in fact, substantial. Let's be clear: the tobacco companies see that the writing is on the wall for their industry, so they are trying to diversify in order to survive, but they don't care the slightest bit about the health or wellbeing of a single one of their customers. Big tobacco has long sought to use new alternative products in a bid to renormalise their industry, and no-one in this place should fall for it.

This job is not over. We absolutely need to do more. We need more evidence based activity and policies to maintain the momentum of the tobacco fight. The tobacco companies will not rest, so we, as a parliament, need to not rest either. The Liberals should restore Australia's global leadership on this issue. They should restore funding that they cut from important Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander smoking cessation programs. They should engage in a national advertising campaign to ensure that smoking rates fall again. They need to vigorously pursue any other forms of advertising for tobacco that have emerged since we were able to remove the last form—the actual pack—with plain packaging. They need to make sure that the National Tobacco Strategy is now not just a document that sits on a shelf, but is, in fact, reinvigorated. The Liberals should restore Australia's global leadership on this issue. If they don't, Labor certainly will. To this end, I move the second reading amendment that has been circulated in my name:

That all words after "That" be omitted with a view to substituting the following words:

"whilst not declining to give the bill a second reading, the House:

(1) notes that progress on lowering smoking rates has stalled following the Government's cuts to tobacco control measures; and

(2) calls on the Government to re-invest in lowering smoking rates".

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