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Flavoured cigarettes like menthols would be banned, and new warnings could be printed on cigarettes as part of a wide-ranging raft of reforms pursued by the federal government.
Key points:
- Cigarettes manufacturers may also have to make them in "unattractive" colours
- The government wants to halve the smoking rate within the next decade
- It is also looking to better regulate vaping products or e-cigarettes
More than a decade on from the introduction of plain packaging of cigarettes, the health minister says a more aggressive approach is needed to try and drive smoking rates in Australia to new lows.
Cigarettes could even be forced to be manufactured in 'unattractive' colours, in a new effort to convince smokers to give up the habit.
And the Therapeutic Goods Administration is being asked to conduct a new review of vaping products in Australia, in a new push to shake-up regulations on the popular — and widely illegally used — products.
Health Minister Mark Butler said while plain packaging has been a successful change, the next step is to target cigarettes within the packet.
"We know that the tobacco industry has innovated by trying to make individual sticks or individual cigarettes more attractive, more marketable, in the plain packaging," he said.
"We want to remove that advantage that the tobacco industry has sought to find for itself."
He said the overall aim was to more than halve smoking rates within the next decade.
"The aim is to achieve a national daily smoking prevalence of less than 10 per cent by 2025, in just three years, and five per cent or less by 2030," he said.
'Yucky brown' cigarettes a possibility
The new reforms will look to change the look of cigarette packets, and the cigarettes themselves.
The warning labels on the front of cigarette packets and tobacco pouches will be updated, and new warnings will be included inside the packets.
The shape and size of the cigarettes and their filters will be standardised, and additives will be banned — meaning an end to menthol cigarettes.
And the government will look at making cigarettes more visually unappealing, by printing warnings on the sticks themselves, and making them unusual colours.
Mr Butler said he wants to consult on the final designs, but is following the lead of countries like Canada.
"I want to see a discussion about colours that make them unattractive, about dissuasive messages on individual sticks, which the Canadian government has just indicated they're going to go forward with," he said.
The idea is finding support from health advocacy groups like the Cancer Council, who argue there is plenty of research indicating these sorts of approaches work.
Megan Varlow from the Cancer Council said it is about reminding people as often as possible of the harm they are doing in smoking.
"The colours that the research has looked at so far are things like a very yucky brown or a sludgy green, they're not the sorts of things that you want to put in your mouth," she said.
"Coupled with the warnings that we see on packs, what they do is they reinforce the harms associated with cigarettes, and remind people every time they have a smoke.
"So if there's 20 cigarettes in a packet, that's 20 reminders of the damage that the cigarette is doing."
Regulations will also target the branding of cigarettes, preventing the use of terms like "light" that the government argues implies the products are less harmful.
New review of vaping rules
The government is also looking to better regulate nicotine vaping products, with the Therapeutic Goods Administration to first consult with the public on how the issue should be approached.
E-cigarettes containing nicotine have been illegal without a prescription for more than a year, but are widely available regardless.
It is estimated about 400,000 Australians regularly vape, including one in 10 people aged between 16 and 24.
The review will look at border controls and how vaping products are being illegally imported, how the products are prescribed and supplied through pharmacies, and how the products are marketed.
Mark Butler said it was clear there were problems with some of the vapes being used by younger Australians.
"Vapes that are marketed out there with pink unicorns, bubble gum flavours, fruit flavours — they are not being marketed to adults," he said.
"That is clearly marketing that's pitched to young children and very young adolescents."
Asked about adopting an approach similar to New Zealand, where nicotine vapes are legal but tightly regulated, Mr Butler said it was up for consideration.
"I don't think anything is off the table, in terms of the discussions that I'm having with state ministerial colleagues," he said.
"Also, they obviously are having discussions with their colleagues in other portfolios that would have a role in playing in putting in place a regulation like that."