Media release: Hunt admits he has no real plan to reduce Australia’s smoking rate

Media release: Hunt admits he has no real plan to reduce Australia’s smoking rate

Health Minister Greg Hunt’s admission during his National Press Club address yesterday that the only plan he has to help tackle Australia’s stagnating smoking rate is to continue with business as usual is bad news for Australian smokers and their families.

Legalise Vaping Australia Campaign Director Brian Marlow said that another four year $20 million public health campaign was not going to deliver the reduction in smoking rates that we all want to see and risks killing yet another generation of smokers unnecessarily.

“Australia’s smoking rate has been stuck at 14 per cent since 2014, well above the target of 10 per cent, and it defies logic that the same failed approach to tackling smoking will achieve the new target of “lessthan 10 per cent by 2025”.

“The rest of the advanced world is adopting vaping as a safer alternative to smoking, but Greg Hunt’s only plan to salvage our failing smoking strategy is to keep wasting money on failed PR campaigns while 15,500 smokers continue to die each year.

“Internationally we see that the evidence continues growing stronger every day that e-cigarettes are far less harmful than conventional tobacco and do save lives, yet Australian health authorities maintain their stubborn opposition to vaping.

“We again call on the Australian Government to urgently work towards legalising vaping so we can start saving lives immediately,” Mr Marlow said today.

Brian Marlow
Campaign Director - Legalise Vaping Australia
0439 138 826