Australia
Anti-tobacco campaign group SmokeFree Tasmania has rejected the State Government’s proposal to raise the minimum legal smoking age from 18 to 21. Instead, the group says it supports a less complex and punitive option in the Tobacco Free Generation Bill presented to the Australian parliament.
SmokeFree Tasmania spokesman prof. Haydn Walters said lifting the minimum legal smoking age to 21 would criminalize smokers.
Raising the age is part of health minister Michael Ferguson’s Healthy Tasmania Five Year Strategic Plan, which drew fire from the Tasmanian Hospitality Association.
“We have some sympathy for the Tasmanian Hotels Association in not wanting to enforce [minimum legal smoking age] legislation, they are not police officers, and we agree with them that the Government proposal is flawed,” Walters said.
Independent Windermere MLC Ivan Dean’s Health Amendment (Tobacco-Free Generation) Bill 2014 is a world-first Private Member’s Bill that would, from 2018, ban the sale of tobacco in the state to anyone born after 2000.