Tobacco companies would be forced to use plain, logo-free packaging on their cigarettes in a bid to make them less attractive to smokers under legislation introduced yesterday by Australia’s government, which dubbed the move a world-first.
The rules, which would take effect on July 1, 2012, would ban tobacco companies from including logos, promotional text or colorful images on cigarette packages. Graphic health warnings would be prominently displayed instead, with the brand name relegated to tiny, generic font at the bottom.
“The new branding for cigarettes will be the most hard-line regime in the world and cigarette companies will hate it,” Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said.
The government also announced it would increase the cigarette tax by 25 percent, driving up the price of a pack of 30 cigarettes by about A$2.16 (US$2). The tax was to go into effect yesterday.
Tobacco companies immediately blasted the packaging crackdown, and vowed to fight it in court.
“Introducing plain packaging just takes away the ability of a consumer to identify our brand from another brand and that’s of value to us,” Imperial Tobacco Australia spokeswoman Cathie Keogh told Australian Broadcasting Corp radio, adding that the company plans to take legal action.
Retailers said the tax hike would hurt their businesses and bolster the cigarette black market.
“It’s a lazy policy response being pushed by some health advocates,” Mick Daly, National Chairman of Australian supermarket chain IGA, said in a statement. “That amounts to a direct attack on approximately 16 percent of Australians who have made legal and legitimate lifestyle choices.”
Tim Wilson, director of intellectual property and free trade at Australia’s Institute of Public Affairs, said taxpayers could end up paying around A$3 billion a year in compensation to tobacco companies.
“Under Australia’s Constitution, if the government basically takes someone’s property rights including intellectual property such as trademarks, or devalues them to a significant extent, they have to provide compensation,” Wilson said. “I’d be shocked if they didn’t [pursue compensation], because if it happens here, it’ll happen all over the world.”
Opposition leader Tony Abbott dismissed the tax hike as a cash grab, and said he wanted evidence that changing the packaging would reduce smoking.
“I’m not in the business of defending smoking, I want to make that absolutely clear. But I also want to make absolutely clear that this is not a health policy — this is a tax grab,” Abbott said.
Australia has banned tobacco ads from print, television and radio for years. The new proposal would also restrict Internet advertising.
TYPHOON: The storm’s path indicates a high possibility of Krathon making landfall in Pingtung County, depending on when the storm turns north, the CWA said Typhoon Krathon is strengthening and is more likely to make landfall in Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said in a forecast released yesterday afternoon. As of 2pm yesterday, the CWA’s updated sea warning for Krathon showed that the storm was about 430km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point. It was moving in west-northwest at 9kph, with maximum sustained winds of 119kph and gusts of up to 155kph, CWA data showed. Krathon is expected to move further west before turning north tomorrow, CWA forecaster Wu Wan-hua (伍婉華) said. The CWA’s latest forecast and other countries’ projections of the storm’s path indicate a higher
SLOW-MOVING STORM: The typhoon has started moving north, but at a very slow pace, adding uncertainty to the extent of its impact on the nation Work and classes have been canceled across the nation today because of Typhoon Krathon, with residents in the south advised to brace for winds that could reach force 17 on the Beaufort scale as the Central Weather Administration (CWA) forecast that the storm would make landfall there. Force 17 wind with speeds of 56.1 to 61.2 meters per second, the highest number on the Beaufort scale, rarely occur and could cause serious damage. Krathon could be the second typhoon to land in southwestern Taiwan, following typhoon Elsie in 1996, CWA records showed. As of 8pm yesterday, the typhoon’s center was 180km
TYPHOON DAY: Taitung, Pingtung, Tainan, Chiayi, Hualien and Kaohsiung canceled work and classes today. The storm is to start moving north this afternoon The outer rim of Typhoon Krathon made landfall in Taitung County and the Hengchun Peninsula (恆春半島) at about noon yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, adding that the eye of the storm was expected to hit land tomorrow. The CWA at 2:30pm yesterday issued a land alert for Krathon after issuing a sea alert on Sunday. It also expanded the scope of the sea alert to include waters north of Taiwan Strait, in addition to its south, from the Bashi Channel to the Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島). As of 6pm yesterday, the typhoon’s center was 160km south of
STILL DANGEROUS: The typhoon was expected to weaken, but it would still maintain its structure, with high winds and heavy rain, the weather agency said One person had died amid heavy winds and rain brought by Typhoon Krathon, while 70 were injured and two people were unaccounted for, the Central Emergency Operation Center said yesterday, while work and classes have been canceled nationwide today for the second day. The Hualien County Fire Department said that a man in his 70s had fallen to his death at about 11am on Tuesday while trimming a tree at his home in Shoufeng Township (壽豐). Meanwhile, the Yunlin County Fire Department received a report of a person falling into the sea at about 1pm on Tuesday, but had to suspend search-and-rescue
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