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Latest NEWS
INTERNATIONAL LAW
WHO
Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC)
World Health Organisation treaty to address all areas of tobacco
impacts. Australia has ratified it, among
hundreds of countries. Above link has links to full treaty text and
implementation guidelines for specific articles. FCTC
summary and using the guidelines
As
with any other treaty, the FCTC confers legal obligations on its Parties
– including Australia. We are obliged to:
-
Protect
public health policies from commercial and other vested interests of
the tobacco industry
-
Adopt
price and tax measures to reduce the demand for tobacco
-
Protect
people from exposure to tobacco smoke
-
Regulate
the contents of tobacco products
-
Regulate
tobacco product disclosures
-
Regulate
the packaging and labelling of tobacco products
-
Warn
people about the dangers of tobacco
-
Ban
tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship
-
Offer
people help to end their addictions to tobacco
-
Control
the illicit trade in tobacco products
-
Ban
sales to and by minors
AUSTRALIAN LAW
Australian
federal
and state legislation on tobacco
Full chart summarising Commonwealth, state and territory laws on
tobacco, as at March 2008. From the Commonwealth Department of
Health and Aging.
See our homepage
for specific areas of legislation
- e.g. smokefree workplaces (below), and under TAKING ACTION: protecting
children, smokefree places, smoking and fires.
Legislation on SMOKEFREE WORKPLACES:
See SmokeFree
Australia webpage with chart of current state/territory laws and
links.
Legislation on PROTECTING CHILDREN
FROM TOBACCO:
See latest
steps taken by governments to:
- put tobacco out of sight in shops;
- prevent children buying or selling
it;
- license its dealers;
- ban or restrict tobacco sales at
youth events or from vending
machines;
- make crowded public places
frequented by children smokefree; and
- make cars
carrying children smokefree.
Packet health
warnings Current
Australian legislation and warnings
Compliance enforcement guidelines
Trying to draft good anti-tobacco laws, ensure maximum compliance with
them, or improve weak legislation so it's more enforceable? See this
guide to the basics by Healthbridge called Enforcement
of tobacco control law
NEWS
Australian laws should get tough on
tobacco industry: lawyer
November 2011: Australia
should introduce far-reaching corruption and racketeering laws to fight
"dirty tactics" of tobacco companies, says a leading lawyer.
Slater and Gordon senior partner Peter Gordon told a tobacco control
meeting in Perth the federal government should stand firm on its plain
packaging legislation, and should introduce US-style racketeering laws
that have delivered multi-billion dollar industry payouts. NineMSN
17/11/11
Plain packs bill passed
November 2011: Australia's tobacco plain
packaging bills have been passed by Parliament. The law
will take full effect by
December 1, 2012 when all tobacco packs on shelves will be as shown
above. Philip Morris has taken legal action as threatened, though seen by
independent legal experts as unlikely to succeed. Minister
Roxon release 21/11/11
"Tobacco diseases can be prevented if countries unite":
ASH
Australia media release 21/11/11 Philip
Morris Asia files lawsuit: PM
Asia release 21/11/11 and Tobacco.org
news 21/11/11
Greens bill to ban tobacco political
donations
June 2011: Private Members' Bill in Federal Parliament from Greens
Leader Senator Bob Brown, to prohibit tobacco industry or related
entities making donations to parties or candidates. See
bill
and explanatory memo
NSW proposes smokefree dining in
discussion paper
2010: The NSW government has
proposed statewide smokefree dining among possible reforms in its
2011-16 Tobacco Strategy released for public input.
See discussion
paper
Government moves against internet
promotion
2010: The Australian
Government introduced legislation to end "cheap" and
"tax-free" tobacco promotion on the internet.
Health
Minister Roxon release 17/11/10
ASH and our allies have been calling for reform of the
Tobacco Advertising Prohibition Act for several years, citing dangerous
loopholes: see Sunday
Telegraph, Sydney, 1/5/05
NSW bans tobacco, alcohol and gambling political donations
2010: NSW parliament has
banned political donations from tobacco
companies, profit-driven liquor/gambling businesses and organisations. See Government release
... ASH
submission 2009 ... ASH
federal campaign
US
tobacco control bill passes
2009: The US House of
Representatives has given overwhelming final approval to a bill granting
the Food and Drug Administration regulatory authority over tobacco.
This long-awaited bill now goes to President Obama to sign it into law.
See US
Campaign for Tobacco-free Kids statement
Tobacco's
heartland moves towards smokefree bars, restaurants
2009: The tobacco industry's birthplace state moves closer
to making its bars and restaurants indoor-smokefree. Virginia legislature
passes law tightly restricting smoking in restaurants. 23 other states and Puerto Rico
had already outlawed indoor bar and restaurant smoking. See
Richmond,
Virginia Times-Despatch report 20/2/09
Canada
and 20+ US states
mandate reduced fire risk cigarettes
2009: Reduced fire risk cigarette
standards are law in Canada and at least than 22 US states - with laws
pending in a further 15 states. See the situation of legislation in North America at
www.firesafecigarettes.org
In New York state, this has led to fewer deaths from fires.
See
ABC (US) news
story 20/9/05 Australia
has now followed suit: see
our webpage on fighting
fires caused by cigarettes
Victoria
beefs up evidence laws after McCabe case
2005: The Victorian Government promises new laws outlawing
intentional destruction of documents to prevent them being used as
evidence in
court. Followed McCabe v BATA case - terminal lung
cancer victim unsuccessfully sued tobacco giant. ABC
News 9/11/05
See this case in Tobacco
litigation
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