Treasury figures show fall in tobacco sales despite counter ind
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MARK COLVIN: Federal Treasury fees buttress claims that sales of cigarettes have fallen since the introduction of graphic health warnings and plain packaging. Earlier this month The Australian said tobacco industry statistics showed the plain packaging push had backfired and tobacco consumption has actually grown during the first full year of the new laws. MANDIE SAMI: The Department of Treasury keeps records on the sales of cigarettes for taxation purposes, but has never before made the information publicly available. The change of policy comes amid debate about the effectiveness of plain packaging laws, which became compulsory in December 2012. In recent weeks the tobacco industry has been questioning the effectiveness of those laws, citing research from data analysis firm Infoview that tobacco sales actually rose 0.3 per cent during the last year. But the latest figures from the Department of Treasury contradict that claim. The data behind the Infoview research hasn't been released, and the company won't reveal who commissioned it. The Treasury data reveals that 3.4 per cent fewer cigarettes were sold last year than 2012. Professor Simon Chapman, from the School of Public Health at the University of Sydney, says that's not surprising: SIMON CHAPMAN: The Government decided to introduce plain packaging because it was very obvious from internal documents of the tobacco industry and from lots of literature in the tobacco trade press that the industry regarded packaging as a leading form of tobacco advertising. There was no ambiguity about this. And because tobacco advertising is banned in Australia and has been since 1992, the Government was really just trying to finish the job. The facts are that cigarette consumption has fallen in Australia, and any amount of sort of denial of that really needs to be seen for what it is Cigarettes Online. It's just motivated talk by the tobacco industry who are very, very distressed about it all, and don't want to see it happen in other countries. MANDIE SAMI: The Treasury data is consistent with national data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics Marlboro Cigarettes. It shows total consumption of tobacco and cigarettes for the March quarter of 2014 at the lowest level since records began in 1959. Professor Simon Chapman. SIMON CHAPMAN: They fell in the year after the introduction of plain packaging, if you adjust for population increase, by 5 per cent, which is really a remarkable fall. MANDIE SAMI: But the tobacco industry, which has resisted plain packaging laws, claims the impact has been less significant. British American Tobacco has previously claimed, while there has been a decline in smoking rates, that rate has halved since the introduction of plain packaging. PM contacted both British American Tobacco and Philip Morris to ask whether the companies agreed with the latest Treasury data. Both companies failed to respond by the time we went to air. Anne Jones, who's the technical advisor on tobacco control for the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease, says the fact that the data from Infoview hasn't been released for public scrutiny speaks for itself: ANNE JONES: It's really outrageous. This is really a tobacco industry inspired tactic to repeat these sorts of false claims in overseas media in the countries that are directly considering whether to go along the Australian route and introduce plain packaging for their own populations. They're not an industry that we can rely on. And often these reports Cigarette Tobacco For Sale, including the one The Australian was quoting, remain secret. It hasn't been put on the table for proper scrutiny, but we can rely on the government's reports that have looked very closely at what is happening with sales and consumption. And those reports are showing that we're seeing decline. MARK COLVIN: Anne Jones, from the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease, ending that report by Mandie Sami. And Philip Morris has issued a statement this evening claiming the Treasury data was not incompatible with industry data. The full statement from Philip Morris will be on PMs website. PHILIP MORRIS LIMITED FULL STATEMENT: "While we don't know the full detail of Treasury's tobacco clearances from their statement, from Philip Morris' perspective, the final quarter of 2012 saw an artificially high rate of tobacco clearances due to our replacement of branded stock on retailers' shelves with plain packaged stock Newport Cigarettes. Whilst this was not double-counted from an industry sales perspective as it was replacement stock, it would have initially been double-counted from a 2012 tobacco clearances perspective as tax must be paid on every pack. Most claims for refunds of the excise paid on our recalled branded stock were not processed until the first quarter of 2013 Marlboro Menthol. Assuming a similar approach by other companies, it's therefore not surprising that Treasury's tobacco clearances in 2013 may have been below inflated 2012 clearances Cheap Cigarettes Free Shipping, nor is it incompatible with industry data that shows a 0.3% / 59 million stick increase in actual sales for the 2013 calendar year."
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