Geneva, October 6, 2015 – The Australian Government has yet to publish its Post-Implementation Review (PIR) into ‘plain’ packaging for tobacco products, six months after the consultation period ended. The delay has prompted concerns that the authors of the report could be misrepresenting the data and even omitting evidence to ensure that the policy is perceived as a success.
Plain packaging was introduced in 2012 with the aim of reducing smoking levels. The latest official data from the Australian Government1 shows no change to the decline in smoking rates, making it increasingly difficult for supporters to claim plain packaging has achieved its goals. [...]
1 National Drug Strategy Household Survey 2013: tobacco, alcohol and illicit drugs.