Review of Tobacco Control Legislation - Update

Overview

The Department of Health and Aged Care (Department) is undertaking a review of its tobacco control legislation in accordance with the Legislation Act 2003 to ensure it remains fit‑for‑purpose, is kept up to date and in force so long as it is needed.

 This review applies to these Acts and Regulations:

• Tobacco Advertising Prohibition Act 1992 (TAP Act);
• Tobacco Advertising Prohibition Regulation 1993 (TAP Regulation);
• Tobacco Plain Packaging Act 2011 (TPP Act); and
• Tobacco Plain Packaging Regulations 2011 (TPP Regulations).

The Department’s tobacco control regulations are due to sunset on 1 April 2022. The Department has undertaken public consultation and a series of stakeholder workshops to inform the review.

Why your views matter

The Department sought responses from interested stakeholders to look at:

• what is working well in the current legislation
• what, if any, changes we can make to the legislation
• whether any provisions in the legislation are redundant
• whether any parts of the legislation are overcomplicated, ambiguous or unclear
• whether regulations can be simpler and easier to enforce
• any other aspects of tobacco control that the Australian Government should consider and prioritise

The Department involved a range of stakeholders via two broad phases of consultation:

• Phase 1: an online public consultation process was held from January to March 2019, seeking public views and suggestions on the current legislation and options for regulatory improvement.
• Phase 2: a series of stakeholder workshops from May to July 2019 to explore options for regulatory improvement.

How we will use your responses

Your submissions were provided to the Department and will be used to inform the identification of options for regulatory improvements. We received 75 written public consultation submissions.

The Department engaged Matthews Pegg Consulting to facilitate these workshops, and analyse and summarise consultation outcomes from both phases of consultation. The consultation summary for both phases has now been published (scroll down to view).

The views expressed in the consultation summary and submissions are those of the individuals or organisations who submitted them. Their publication does not imply any acceptance of, or agreement with, these views by the Department or the Australian Government.

The Department will continue to consider the consultation summary and submissions to inform Government on the options for regulatory improvements.

Protection from commercial and other vested interests of the tobacco industry

The World Health Organization (WHO) Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), to which Australia is a Party, aims to advance international cooperation to protect present and future generations from the preventable and devastating health, social, environmental and economic consequences of tobacco consumption and exposure to tobacco smoke.

Under Article 5.3 of the WHO FCTC, Parties are obliged to act to protect their public health policies with respect to tobacco control from the commercial and other vested interests of the tobacco industry, in accordance with national law.

What happens next

The insights gained through this public consultation process and stakeholder workshops will continue to ensure the tobacco control legislation is suitable to address current and future challenges and continues to achieve the Government’s objectives in tobacco control.