A health warning will be printed on every cigarette sold in Australia under strict new laws aimed at stamping out smoking.
Under the tobacco regulations, warning messages including ‘poison in every puff’, ‘damages your lungs’, ’causes 16 cancers’, ‘shortens your life’ and ‘toxic addiction’ must be printed on every cigarette by April 2025.
‘We will be one of the first countries in the world to include this new public health measure, again seeking to educate but also dissuade smokers from using this deadly product,’ said health minister Mark Butler when he announced the legislation last year.
The regulation guidelines were released in October 2024, giving manufacturers five months to comply with the April 2025 deadline.
Mr Butler said that retailers will have a three-month transition period, from April 1 to the end of June next year, to gradually phase out their old stock.
But industry sources told the Daily Telegraph that manufacturers will need more time to be able to revamp their supply chains in time to produce the new government-required cigarettes.
If manufacturers miss the deadline, Australia could face a situation where legal cigarettes are unavailable in stores.
Nationals senator Matt Canavan warned the government there was a ‘clear and understandable risk’ that people would turn to illegal cigarettes as a result of the legislation.
‘If there is an interruption to the supply of legal tobacco, it would push people to illicit tobacco,’ he said at Senate Estimates last week, while quizzing Health Department Secretary Dr Liz Develin.
‘Rushing the implementation of this, maybe not allowing manufacturers to respond in time could lead to greater use of illicit tobacco.
‘A big reason why organised crime is well-funded in this country is because illicit tobacco is very, very lucrative.’
Theo Foukkare, CEO of the Australian Association of Convenience Stores, said they supported the government’s initiative, but warned the deadline was unrealistic.
‘If you were to print one message on a cigarette stick it’s somewhat achievable but we have to reconfigure,’ Mr Foukkare told The Daily Telegraph.
‘Retailers won’t be able to buy compliant products until their suppliers can provide that.
‘This isn’t about saying we don’t want to do this, it’s that we can’t do it in the time frame.’
Australia has followed the Canadian government which introduced warning labels on cigarette sticks in August 2023.
Manufacturers in Canada had until July 2024 to print the messages on all king-size cigarettes and have until April 2025 to print on regular cigarettes and little cigars.
Cigarette prices in Australia are among the highest globally due to high taxes, with a 20-pack costing between $39 and $60, depending on the brand. Of this, $26 is tax.
Cigarette excise taxes are indexed twice a year in line with average salaries, with the tax per stick rising by 2.8 per cent to $1.27816 on March 1, up from $1.24335.
This has fueled a booming black market.
One Sydney smoker, Tom, regularly buys a packet of black-market cigarettes for $12 – or splashes out and pays $20 for an illegal packet of Marlboros.
He says they are sold in every suburb, and blames the federal government’s continued tax rises.
‘I know hardly anyone who buys legitimate cigarettes; and I don’t blame the little stores from selling them.
‘Go to any pub and have a look around at the cigarette packets on the table – few are the legal, plain-package variety.’
