Cancer Council NSW congratulates the NSW Government on announcing reforms that tackle illegal tobacco including a tobacco licensing scheme, increased enforcement and tougher penalties for tobacco retail offences.
Introducing a Tobacco License Scheme brings NSW into line with nearly every other jurisdiction in Australia. The scheme, supported by increased penalties, is expected to significantly strengthen tobacco retailer compliance, monitoring and enforcement efforts. Anita Dessaix, Director of Cancer Prevention and Advocacy at Cancer Council NSW, said:
"We commend this announcement from the NSW Government, on what has been a long-standing policy ask from Cancer Council NSW.
"NSW has a good track record of acting to reduce smoking and prevent the uptake of smoking among young people. This has been achieved through strong policy measures such as expanding smoke-free areas, well-funded public education campaigns and tobacco retail display bans.
"This announcement further strengthens NSW tobacco control efforts.
"For low volume tobacco retailers, and those retailers that don't consider tobacco sales to be important for their business, we hope today's announcement prompts retailers to think twice about selling a product that if used as intended - kills." Ms Dessaix concluded.
Also in support of this announcement, Public Health Association of Australia CEO, Adj Prof Terry Slevin said, "the NSW Government's action is a welcome, positive, and strong step toward reducing the availability of tobacco, and therefore the harms tobacco causes people across the state.
"It leaves Victoria as an outlier and the Victorian Government has to hasten it's efforts."
Tobacco is still the leading preventable cause of death and disability in NSW, and the social costs of smoking have been estimated at about $8.4billion. In NSW around 6,700 deaths and more than 62,900 hopsitalisations were attributed to smoking.
