Australia has some of the most-strict anti-smoking policies in the world, and they’ve proved effective at encouraging smokers to quit.

Policies such as the graphic health warnings on cigarette packets, restricting the point-of-sale display of cigarettes, and maybe most effective of all, the stratospheric excise which increased by another 12.5% on 01 September 2020.

That latest excise increase brings the price up to nearly A$30 for a packet of Marlboro, by far the most expensive in the world.

The second most expensive place to buy a pack of smokes is New Zealand, but the Ardern Government has just gone nuclear and done what public health activists have advocated for years – to start the process of an actual prohibition on the sale of cigarettes.

As Sydney UniversityAssociate Professor of Public Health Becky Freeman says in this interview with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, New Zealand should be commended for its decision.

Professor Freeman says the New Zealand Government has initiated a series of policies that includes a permanent ban on the sale of tobacco products to people born after 2009.

Other policies include restricting retail outlets permitted to sell tobacco products and removing nicotine from cigarettes.

We were particularly taken during the interview by the ‘scream test’ used by public health academics as a measure of the likely impact of a policy on the tobacco industry – the louder they scream, the more likely the initiative is to be effective.

Let’s hope the guys on Mars can hear the howls!