The 13th World Conference on Tobacco OR Health

In nations with 20-30 year histories of active tobacco control, there is evidence of news media and political tedium with tobacco control as an issue: a perception that the subject has been "done". As most of the traditional platforms of comprehensive tobacco control policy have been enacted and implemented, foci for continuing advocacy and newsmaking similarly retreat. For example, when smoking is banned in all indoor public places, opportunities to raise the importance of controlling secondhand smoke also reduce, and tobacco control dims as a high profile issue.

The imperatives for tobacco control are ultimately values-based, as are those for neglecting tobacco control. When tobacco control is in political ascendency, the values which underscore it resonate with the dominant political zeitgeists of the day. Similarly, when it languishes, there are discordances between its values and those which political leaders find more compelling.

In this paper, I will explore past, present and future examples of how tobacco control has been and might become publicly and politically compelling. My examples will be drawn from Australia, a nation which has seen most elements of tobacco control enacted, where daily smoking prevalence among those aged 14 and older has fallen to 17.4%, but where tobacco control still enjoys only a fraction of the political patronage of many other public health issues.