Nick Xenophon (SA, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the minister for his answer. But the fact is: over the period from 2009-10 to 2014-15, the revenue from tobacco excise was in the order of $40 billion but, for that same period, it seems that the federal government spent $135 million in antismoking campaigns and, for PBS benefits for smoking cessation therapy, in one year, 2014, $47.8 million. All I wish to ask is this. Has the government done any modelling on this: if nicotine replacement therapy were cheaper, or free, and if there were more money spent on tobacco cessation campaigns—out of the $40 billion that the government got in that period or the $8 billion plus it gets each year, another $50 million, $100 million or $200 million a year—what difference would that make in terms of reducing smoking rates? Has there been any modelling done of that? Some cynics have put to me that the government does not want these antismoking campaigns to be too successful because they will actually lose revenue, because if people ultimately stopped smoking then there would not be any excise, but of course there would be an enormous health and social dividend.