High tobacco prices are the best way to stop people from smoking, say public health experts.
HAVE YOUR SAY: Will the tobacco tax hike help curb smoking?
They have welcomed Labor plans to raise the cost of cigarettes by 12.5 per cent a year for the next four years, a compound increase of 60 per cent that is expected to raise $5.3 billion in revenue.
"The 25 per cent tax increase in 2010 led to an 11 per cent reduction in tobacco consumption," says the Heart Foundations's Maurice Swanson.
"Raising the price of tobacco products is globally acknowledged as one of the most effective measures to help smokers to quit and to deter young people from starting. It also helps people who have quit smoking from relapsing."
"This is win, win, win," says Melbourne University Professor of Public Health Rob Moodie. "It helps people quit, it gives government extra revenue and it increases productivity because of fewer sick days.
"Smoking in Australia is a major maimer of people. It causes enormous costs to the health system in treating stroke, heart disease and cancers."
Cancer Council Australia CEO Professor Ian Olver says the Labor plan will prompt about 210,000 smokers to quit.
"If the government wants to get to a smoking rate of 10 per cent by 2018 this is the best way of doing it."
The higher the tax, the less room there is for tobacco companies to blunt the impact by discounting prices, he says.
"The excise increase is a continuation of the outstanding commitment to ridding Australia of the tobacco-caused burden of cancer and other diseases."
He says increasing the cost of tobacco products is particularly effective for people on lower incomes and young people.
