While the effects of plain packaging on cigarette sales have long been the subject of speculation, figures just released by the Federal Treasury show that they have actually fallen in Australia since plain packages were made mandatory in 2012.
The Treasury previously kept information on cigarette sales quiet, but chose to release the data after various media reports claimed – incorrectly, it now seems – that sales have risen since the introduction of plain packages.
The new figures, published recently on the Health Department’s website, show that tobacco clearances, an indicator of the volume of tobacco on the Australian market, fell by 3.4% in 2013 compared with 2012.
They also indicate that the amount of money Australians spend on cigarettes is falling. In the March quarter of 2014, the national expenditure was $3.405 billion, the lowest that it has ever been.
For the sake of comparison, the figures show that 55 years ago, in the September quarter of 1959, Australians spent an adjusted $5.135 billion on cigarettes.
When plain packages, with their graphic health warnings, were introduced two years ago, the government said that they were intended to reduce the attractiveness of tobacco products and also the potential for consumers to be misled by advertising.
It now seems that they are working, although the tobacco industry have attempted to spin the outcome of the new laws as a good thing.
A spokesman for British American Tobacco claimed that, while smoking rates have been declining in Australia for a number of years, the rate of decline has “slowed” since the introduction of plain packages.
One thing we can all agree on: those health warnings are freakin’ gross.
Photo: Cameron Spencer via Getty Images
