Australias smoking rates have plateaued in recent years, as the current smoking prevalence for Australians aged 14+ has only declined slightly from 12.8% in 2018 to 11.8% in 2023.[xlvi] This is in contrast to Aotearoa New Zealands decline in smoking rates over the same period, where current smoking prevalence dropped from 15.1% in 2017/2018 to 8.3% in 2022/2023.[xlvii] It has been suggested that this slowing in Australias smoking cessation rate is partially associated with Australias total ban on commercial sales of nicotine products, excluding tobacco cigarettes.[xlviii] [xlix] Australias vaping prevalence has seen a significant increase over the same period, jumping from 1.4% in 2018 to 8.9% in 2023.[l] The Director of Action for Smokefree 2025 has emphasised: The only policy difference between Aotearoa New Zealand and Australia during this period has been that we allow nicotine vaping sales to compete with cigarettes, whereas Australia has taken a prescription model that puts much safer vaping out of the reach of most people.[li] What have government and health organisations' messaging been around vaping for harm reduction
Making this clear in legislation by including all tobacco products will help regulators, businesses and the public comply with the new laws
The researchers begin their argument by displaying a chart that juxtaposes the per capita consumption of cigarettes from 1980 to 2009 to the average tax on a pack
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"If someone smokes one cigarette instead of 20 per day, intuitively we'd think that the risk drops to 1/20, or five per cent," said lead author Allan Hackshaw, a professor at University College London, whose paper analysed 141 previous studies
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