• Groups want nation smoke free in 10 years  

THREE influential health organisations - the National Heart Foundation, the Cancer Council and Action on Smoking and Health - say Australia could be smoke-free in a decade with full government commitment.

The groups believe Australia could emulate a campaign in New Zealand that calls for smoking to be phased out over the next 10 years. It would be possible if federal and state governments increased funding for anti-smoking measures and phased in restrictions slowly.

"We support the New Zealanders and we think Australia could achieve that as well," the Heart Foundation's national tobacco spokesman, Maurice Swanson, said, from the Oceania Tobacco Control Conference in Auckland. "Subject to an appropriate level of commitment from the Australian Federal Government, it is possible that Australia could be smoke-free within 10 years."

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