On the 30th anniversary of the Dirty Ashtray Awards, two Australian organisations received dishonourable mentions for attempting to influence public policy while hiding the full extent of their links with the tobacco industry.
The Australian Association of Convenience Stores (AACS) took out the Dirty Ashtray Award for refusing to disclose their industry funding to a Senate Inquiry consultation on new tobacco laws. AACS members include three transnational tobacco companies. It has campaigned against world leading public health measures on smoking and vaping for over two decades.
The Exploding Vape Award went to the Australian Taxpayers Alliance for their ‘Bust the Black-Market’ campaign, which pushed an industry agenda for regulating consumer sales of vapes ‘just like cigarettes and alcohol’ while ignoring public health recommendations and claiming to be grassroots campaigners (astroturfing)*.
“All you need to do is spend one day at my GP clinic to realise tobacco and nicotine are still having disastrous effects on Australians’ health,” said Dr Danielle McMullen, President of the AMA, which partners with ACOSH to deliver the awards.
“In particular, young patients who have developed a nicotine addiction through vapes, shows the industry is unfortunately alive and well, and reinforces why these awards are needed as much now as they were 30 years ago.”
“The tobacco industry is still campaigning hard to keep and grow their markets, but they are doing so via their friends and pretending to be legitimate,” said Laura Hunter, ACOSH CEO.
“It is completely unacceptable to see the tobacco industry attempting to influence health policy. We need the public and our politicians to understand who is really talking when organisations like the AACS and the Australian Taxpayers Alliance lobby our elected officials, so that they can deliver public health policy based on the best evidence, not vested interests.”
