Call to end tobacco donations
 31 May 2004

AUSTRALIA'S opposition Labor Party marked "World No Smoking Day" today by challenging Prime Minister John Howard's government to decline all political donations from tobacco companies.

Opposition health spokeswoman Julia Gillard said the government still had not responded to opposition leader Mark Latham's challenge to match his commitment to no longer accept such donations.

"On World No Tobacco Day it's the right day for the government to match Labor's commitment and say it won't take donations from tobacco companies," Gillard told reporters.

"We are concerned that the inter-relationship between the government and tobacco companies is affecting government policy."

She said the government had committed to having graphic warnings on cigarette packs, on 50 percent of the front of packs, and to implementing the move by the middle of this year.

"The government has now delayed those plans until 2006 and is downgrading the warnings to 30 percent of the pack."

Gillard said evidence from Canada showed graphic warnings on 50 percent of the pack actually led to a three percent drop in smoking rates.

"If we could achieve that in Australia it would save lives and save the government more than 2.0 billion dollars (1.4 billion US) in health and associated costs," she said.

She said the government's Medicare health service advertising campaign, which began this weekend, should be diverted to anti-tobacco advertising.

However, Gillard declined to comment on whether she believed the state governments, all six of which are Labor controlled, should stop taking donations from tobacco companies.

Federal Health Minister Tony Abbott last week promised that tobacco lobbyists would not be able to influence the level of health warnings on cigarette packets.

Although successive governments have achieved significant success in stopping Australians smoking, some 10 percent of the 20 million population still smoke.

Agence France-Presse