Big drop in funds to fight smoking

Spending on anti-smoking public health campaigns has plummeted over the past decade as health experts say Australia risks losing momentum.

The overall cost to Australia caused by smoking is $137bn a year.

Spending on anti-smoking public health campaigns has plummeted over the past decade as health experts say Australia risks losing its momentum on tobacco control.

A journal article calculates that spending by the Australian, NSW and Victorian government fell from $36m in 2010 to $7.1m in 2018. This occurred even as the overall cost to Australia caused by smoking was calculated at $137bn a year.

Australia’s national adult smoking rate is 16 per cent for men and 12 per cent for women, down from 58 per cent and 28 per cent for men and women respectively 40 years ago.

The article in the journal Public Health Research & Practice warns that spending on mass media campaigns is declining even as evidence grows greater of the health and economic harms of smoking.

Emily Banks, a professor at the Australian National University’s National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health and the Sax Institute, said the need for mass media campaigns warning against smoking’s dangers was more urgent than ever.

“What we’re seeing is at the same time that our knowledge of the harms of smoking is increasing, it’s not being matched by a proportionate investment in mass media,” she said.

“Anyone who is a little bit older will remember those very hard-hitting ad campaigns about quitting. I think what we’ve been missing is that level of investment in the mass media. Prevention is so much better than cure.

“What we are calling for is renewed attention to tobacco control. We’ve got daily smoking rates down to around 11 per cent, we just need that push to get us really well below 5 per cent … it is still the No 1 cause of disease.”

Over the past decade, investment in mass media anti-­smoking campaigns by the Australian, NSW and Victorian governments collectively declined from $35m in 2010–11 to $5.5m in 2013–14. It increased to $10m in 2014–15 before falling away to $7.1m in 2017–18.

Some of the increase since 2014 was allocated specifically to anti-smoking campaigns directed at Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.

It’s estimated that 40 per cent of Aboriginal people smoke.

The federal government has set a goal of reducing Australian smoking prevalence to below 10 per cent by 2025.

Health Minister Greg Hunt recently allocated $10m to a new anti-smoking campaign, saying tobacco control would be central to the new National Preventive Health Strategy.

Smoking is Australia’s No 1 cause of premature death and has been shown to cause 15 fatal cancer types besides lung cancer. It’s estimated to account for 12 per cent of heart disease deaths and 10 per cent of Australia’s total disease burden.

Former health minister Michael Wooldridge says action on tobacco should be eased only “when adult smoking rates are 2 per cent or lower”.