Public support for phasing out the sale of cigarettes in Australia

Factors associated with support for reducing and ending tobacco sales among university students in Queensland, Australia and New Zealand

OBJECTIVE

To assess the factors associated with support for reducing tobacco retail availability and ending the legal sale of cigarettes in Australia and New Zealand (NZ).

METHODS

Cross-sectional surveys were conducted in NZ (eight universities, n=1,932) and Queensland (University of Queensland or UQ, n=5,172). Participants were asked how much they agreed or disagreed with reducing the number of places allowed to sell cigarettes/tobacco and ending the legal sale of cigarettes within 10 years. Multinomial logistic regression models assessed associations between support with student characteristics.

RESULTS

More than half the respondents in both samples supported reducing the number of tobacco outlets (NZ 69.3%; UQ 62.3%), and ending the legal sale of cigarettes within 10 years (NZ 53.3%; UQ 51.6%) with marginally more support among NZ students. Men and students who smoked or vaped had lower odds of supporting both strategies compared with women and non-users.

CONCLUSIONS

The results suggest widespread support for reducing tobacco retail availability among university students in NZ and Queensland, and sex, and smoking and vaping status were strong predictors for support. Around half supported phasing out tobacco sales within 10 years.

IMPLICATIONS FOR PUBLIC HEALTH

Collaborative research should be encouraged to enhance cross-country approaches on tobacco control.

Public support for policies to phase out the retail sale of cigarettes in Australia: results from a nationally representative survey

BACKGROUND

There is growing international interest in a goal once considered unthinkable: phasing out the retail sales of smoked tobacco products. In this study, we examined public support for phasing out sales and specific measures for moving towards a phase-out among a nationally representative sample of Australian adults.

METHODS

In December 2019, we used a probability-based online panel, Life in Australia™, to survey n=1939 Australian adults (n=1874 included in analyses due to missing data).

RESULTS

Almost two-thirds of respondents thought it would be 'a good thing' if there came a time when it was no longer legal to sell cigarettes in shops in Australia and only 16.7% thought it would be 'a bad thing'. After the concept of a phase-out was defined as removing a product from the Australian market over a set period, such as 5 years, but still allowing purchases online from overseas companies, 50.7% indicated support for such a phase-out and 61.8% thought it should happen within 10 years. Support was greater for specific measures such as licensing tobacco retailers (75.3%) and restricting sales to places children cannot enter (76.3%). Support tended to be consistent across demographic subgroups but was stronger among never and former smokers than among current smokers.

CONCLUSIONS

There has been little public discussion in Australia about the goal of 1 day phasing out the retail sale of cigarettes. It is notable that such policies are reasonably well supported by the Australian public, with only minority opposition.