Australia: Fear Privacy Laws Will Hit Anti-smoking Campaign

Source from:  Brisbane (QLD) Times (au)  06/08/2013

There are fears the campaign to reduce smoking in Australia will be hampered by the government's failure to publish figures on tobacco tax.

Last month's budget papers withheld the figures on tobacco excise to protect ''taxpayer confidentiality''.

The latest statistics released by the Tax Office also declined to publish specific tobacco excise information ''to comply with privacy regulations''.

But public health researchers warn the failure to publish tobacco excise data will make it impossible to properly monitor the consumption of cigarettes in Australia. ''It's going to make it very, very difficult for us to evaluate important policy and program impacts,'' Sydney University Professor of Public Health Simon Chapman said.

Professor Chapman said corporate privacy was not a good enough reason to suppress information important to public health. The decision to withhold information about tobacco excise was inconsistent with other measures to prevent smoking such as plain packaging, he said.

Treasurer Wayne Swan said last week he would ''love to tell'' how much tobacco excise would be raised but he was legally prevented from doing so.

''I'm not given that figure by the Treasury,'' he said.

Fairfax Media understands the excise figures were not published because there are now only two major tobacco manufacturers in Australia - British American Tobacco and Philip Morris. This means publication could breach taxpayer confidentiality because they could be used to identify the private commercial affairs of market players.

Assistant Treasurer David Bradbury said the government recognised the concerns of public health experts about the availability of information about the amount of excise paid. He introduced a bill into Parliament this week requiring large corporations to provide more information about tax they pay. If it became law it would ''make sure that the public has access to aggregate information about all Commonwealth taxes, including tobacco excise,'' he said.

Mr Bradbury wants the bill to progress ''as quickly as possible''. But there is no certainty it will be put to a vote in both houses before this year's election.

The Coalition has not yet said whether it supports the bill. Despite the secrecy, economists have estimated a budget decision to index tobacco excise to wages rather than inflation means smokers could be paying an additional $1.2 billion in tobacco tax over the next four years.

Deloitte Access Economics budget expert Chris Richardson calculates a typical packet of cigarettes could cost 70¢ to 80¢ more with indexing by 2016-17. ''Over time, this will build into something really quite big,'' Mr Richardson said.

Mr Swan said the changes would make tobacco indexation ''more consistent with consumers' purchasing power''.

Professor Chapman said the increase would be too gradual to have a major impact.

A spokesman for British American Tobacco said it was ''disappointed the government has chosen to slug smokers in an effort to try and fix their budget problems''. Enditem