September 2013 - MyChoice Australia

Tobacco control is about control – not tobacco

30 Sep, 201330 Sep, 2013 Lara

Tobacco control has never been about protecting the health of smokers. Not one policy – not a single one – that has ever pushed up the price of tobacco, restricted who can purchase tobacco, limited who can sell tobacco, abolished the right to advertise or even brand tobacco products, banned flavours of tobacco, and outlawed the use of tobacco in private or in public locations, or presence of certain people, has ever been designed, approved, or implemented with the well-being of smokers in mind. Historically, this might have been more…

Plain Packaging WTO Woes Grow: Indonesia Also Says No

21 Sep, 2013 Lara

Indonesia has joined the burgeoning international movement against Australia’s plain packaging laws. The World Trade Organisation has announced that Indonesia “had made a formal request for consultations with Australia” over plain packaging. The controversial policy has already pushed Honduras, Ukraine, Cuba and the Dominican Republic to ask the WTO to intervene in the dispute over the world’s most tyrannical tobacco packaging laws. These tobacco-supplying nations argue that plain packaging laws create illegal obstacles to world trade, breaching intellectual property rights and international trade rules. With Indonesia initiating dispute resolution proceedings,…

NSW to outlaw hopscotch

19 Sep, 2013 admin_ata

The New South Wales Government, having apparently succeeded in solving our road congestion, public transport nightmare, hospital shortages and crime spree in south Western Sydney, has decided to turn its attention to the real scourge in our community: hopscotch. Under new anti-grafiti laws currently before the parliament, temporary chalk hopscotch squares of handball courts drawn on footpaths or bitumen would be illegal without council approval. Without council approval, children will be acing a $440 fine. While Attorney General Greg Smith has acknowledged that drawing in chalk will be an offence, he…

Honduras Takes Plain Packaging Fight to WTO

17 Sep, 2013 Lara

Plain packaging is firmly back on the international agenda, with Honduras joining Ukraine in pushing the World Trade Organisation to set up a dispute resolution panel over the worlds most ridiculous tobacco control measure. Tobacco producing nations, including the Dominican Republic and Cuba, argue that plain packaging laws create illegal obstacles to world trade. Australia’s obsession with infantilising smokers has seen Canberra and the High Court bluntly refusing to acknowledge that preventing an entire industry from branding its products is a plain infringement of intellectual property. Australia has so far…