Gains to be made in driving down tobacco use
Jump to full article: Cancer Council Western Australia (au), 2009-10-21
Intro: A new report commissioned by the Cancer Council Western Australia debunks
tobacco industry arguments that higher tobacco taxes will be detrimental to the
Australian economy.
‘Weighing the evidence: evaluating the social benefits and costs of the Australian
tobacco industry’ is the first independent analysis of economic arguments the
tobacco industry has put forward in its defence over many decades.
Director of the Cancer Council Western Australia’s Tobacco Program, Denise
Sullivan said the report assessed the economic impact of both the tobacco industry
and public health measures aimed at reducing tobacco use.
“The tobacco industry frequently employs economic scare tactics when policymakers
are considering measures for reducing demand for tobacco, such as
increases in taxes on the sale of tobacco,” Ms Sullivan said.
“This report provides the evidence that there would be few, if any negative economic
consequences in further measures to curb tobacco consumption in Australia.” . . .
“A fall in demand for tobacco, while significantly affecting the tobacco industry, will
have very little, if any, negative economic impact. Indeed, it is possible that the
overall impact would be mildly positive.”
Professor Collins said the tobacco industry analyses of their contribution to the
Australian economy were flawed.
“The industry fails to take into account healthcare costs imposed on the community
for the treatment of illnesses caused by tobacco,” he said. . . .
“Clearly tobacco tax revenue paid by the tobacco industry itself does not cover the
social costs of tobacco consumption,” Professor Collins said.
. . .
“This report gives the Federal Government a strong mandate for a significant
tobacco tax increase, which will also enable them to spend more money on public
health, including further action to reduce smoking, which still kills one in two regular
smokers,” Professor Daube said.
“The only people with anything to lose with this strategy are the tobacco
companies themselves.”
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