Plain Packaging in Australia
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Plain Packaging in Australia, Tobacco Tactics, updated 12 June 2020, accessed 20 April 2024.
On 21 November 2011, the Australian Parliament passed the government’s proposed plain packaging legislation, and as a result, since 1 December 2012, all tobacco products sold in Australia must be in plain packaging.1 The legislation bans the use of logos, brand imagery, symbols, other images, colours and promotional text on tobacco products and tobacco product packaging, and the packaging must be a standard drab olive green colour in a standard matt finish.2
In December 2011, talking about the impending legislation Nicola Roxon, Australian Minister for Health and Ageing said:
We know that packaging remains one of the last powerful marketing tools for tobacco companies to recruit new smokers to their deadly products, but now cigarette packets will only serve as a stark reminder of the devastating health effects of smoking.” 3
Australia was the first country in the world to impose plain packaging laws in 2012. However, proposals to introduce plain packaging (also known as generic packaging and standardised packaging) in Australia date back to the early 1990s (See History of Plain Packaging: Developing the Intellectual Property Argument). As a result, many of the anti-plain packaging tactics employed by the tobacco industry across the world have been seen in Australia first.
In response to the plans, the tobacco industry launched a multi-million dollar media and lobbying campaign, using many of its well-established tactics, listed on our Plain Packaging and Industry Arguments Against Plain Packaging pages. Australian newspaper The Sydney Morning Herald reported that British American Tobacco (BAT) Australia had spent AUD 4.5 million (almost £3 million) on its campaign against plain packaging.4
On 9 June 2020, the Appellate Body of the World Trade Organization (WTO) issued a final ruling affirming that Australia’s plain packaging for tobacco products is entirely consistent with WTO agreements.5 This ruling ends a long dispute against Australia’s plain packaging which started in 2012 when four countries, Honduras, Indonesia, the Dominican Republic and Cuba, filed complaints. These complaints were first dismissed in June 2018. Honduras and Dominican Republic appealed, and the June 2020 ruling finally confirmed that plain packaging laws are both scientifically and legally sound. It was reported that those countries received technical and financial support from BAT and PMI to bring their complaints.6
JTI had a number of consultancies commissioned that all came with reports warning against graphic health warnings and plain packaging. Find out more about this tactic on the JTI page
TobaccoTactics Resources
Listed below are the tactics that the tobacco industry has employed to try to prevent, delay and amend plain packaging laws in Australia.
* Trademark claims and other legal threats
Visit our plain packaging page list for a comprehensive list of all plain packaging information stored on TobaccoTactics.org.
External Links
* Cancer Council Australia’s Plain facts website provides up to date information on the impacts of plain packaging in Australia and provides critiques of tobacco industry reports claiming that plain packaging in Australia has not been successful.
* Special edition of Tobacco Control journal with peer-reviewed studies evaluating the impact of plain packaging legislation in Australia, published in March 2015.
