Smoking is the number one preventable cause of death and disease in Australia.
A report by the World Bank (1999) indicated that tax increases on tobacco products are the single most effective means available to governments to reduce tobacco consumption and prevalence and therefore reduce death and disease due to smoking.
Cancer Council supports a substantial increase in tobacco excise and customs duty in association with:
- the stepping up of campaigns to discourage smoking;
- the funding and implementation of further programs to support smokers to quit (especially targeting low SES groups);
- measures to ensure all smokers for whom nicotine replacement therapy is clinically appropriate are able to afford it; and
- development of measures to minimise growth in tax free and illicit sales of tobacco products in Australia.