How Australia Got the Story of Tobacco Harm Reduction So Wrong

Alan Gor 5 October 2025

Australia likes to see itself as a global leader in public health, the country that took on Big Tobacco and won. But somewhere along the way, that confidence turned into arrogance. The story of tobacco harm reduction, or THR, in Australia has been twisted into something unrecognisable. What should have been a conversation about saving lives has become a moral crusade driven by fear, politics, and misplaced pride.

This blog explains, in plain language, how the narrative went off the rails, how academic advisors and government officials helped cement it, and why it needs to change before more Australians pay the price.

What Tobacco Harm Reduction Actually Means

Tobacco harm reduction means helping smokers move to less harmful alternatives such as regulated vapes or nicotine products, instead of forcing them to quit cold turkey or die trying.

In most countries, this approach is seen as common sense. The United Kingdom, Sweden, and New Zealand all use harm reduction as part of their tobacco control strategy. Smoking rates are falling fast, and public health officials are realistic about how addiction works.

But in Australia, THR has been painted as the enemy. Instead of helping smokers switch to safer products, our government is determined to outlaw them. Instead of listening to international evidence, our academics double down on fear campaigns. Instead of reducing harm, policy is driving people back to cigarettes or into the black market.

The Great Australian Denial

The first problem is denial. Our officials and health advisors act as though Australia exists in its own bubble, untouched by the evidence from overseas. The phrase “harm reduction” has become taboo, replaced by slogans like “protecting our kids” and “cracking down on nicotine.”

Every time new data shows that vaping helps adults quit smoking overseas, it is dismissed as industry propaganda. Every time reports suggest that smoking is creeping up again among young adults, there is silence.

The denial runs deep. Government-funded researchers publish studies focusing only on youth vaping rates while avoiding any discussion about adult smoking trends. The Roy Morgan reports showing post-ban increases in smoking among 18 to 24 year olds are ignored. The AIHW data showing stalled progress is often overshadowed by press releases celebrating record-low youth vaping rates that do not quite match the actual numbers.

The result is a public perplexed about what is actually happening and a government content to keep it that way.

Academic Advisors or Policy Enforcers

Academic advisors are supposed to provide evidence, not ideology. Yet in Australia, many have blurred that line.

Figures like Associate Professor Becky Freeman, a key member of the Generation Vape study, have become regular fixtures in media interviews warning about vaping harms. Her research is heavily promoted by the Cancer Council and used to justify ongoing restrictions. But the same reports almost never mention adult smokers, the people who could benefit from regulated harm reduction tools.

This is not balanced science. It is selective framing. It portrays vaping as a threat to social order rather than a public health opportunity. The Generation Vape study focuses on perception and social behaviour rather than actual population-level harm reduction.

By presenting only one side of the story, these researchers give politicians a convenient shield. The government can say it is following “the science,” when in truth it is following only the parts of science that support prohibition.

The Government’s Self-Inflicted Disaster

The federal government, led by Health Minister Mark Butler, has taken this one-sided advice and turned it into a policy disaster.

When Butler announced the new retail vaping ban and pharmacy-only model in 2024, it was presented as a moral stand to protect children. In reality, it created chaos. Legal businesses were shut down, smokers were pushed toward unregulated black-market products, and access to quitting tools was made nearly impossible.

Pharmacies were left confused about what they could sell. Doctors were reluctant to prescribe nicotine because of legal uncertainty. Meanwhile, illegal vape shops flourished, openly trading in every major city.

The result is that smokers who might have switched to safer options are lighting up again. Roy Morgan’s 2025 survey showed that smoking among 18 to 24 year olds actually increased after the reforms. The AIHW’s 2022 to 2023 data also showed little progress in reducing adult smoking. Yet the government refuses to acknowledge this reality.

Instead of reducing harm, Australia has made it harder to quit and easier to stay addicted.

The Double Standard

Australia’s leaders claim they are protecting children. But protecting children should not mean punishing adults.

While the government spends millions on anti-vaping advertising campaigns, it continues to collect billions in tobacco taxes. Cigarettes remain widely available on every street corner, while regulated nicotine vapes are treated like contraband.

The hypocrisy is staggering. The same health officials who warn of a vaping epidemic are silent about the ongoing sale of the product that kills twenty thousand Australians every year. They criminalise adults trying to quit, while quietly profiting from the very habit they condemn.

This is not public health. It is a revenue system dressed up as moral concern.

The Academic Echo Chamber

Australia’s public health network has become a closed loop. The same handful of academics review each other’s work, cite each other’s papers, and amplify the same talking points across media outlets.

When independent researchers or international harm reduction experts question their findings, they are dismissed as having industry ties. When smokers or vapers share their experiences, they are ignored.

This echo chamber has produced a dangerous illusion that everyone in science agrees with the government’s position. In reality, dozens of international studies show that regulated vaping significantly reduces smoking rates and disease risk. Those studies are rarely mentioned in Australian journals or conferences.

The Cost of Silence

The true victims of this failure are ordinary Australians. The smoker who wants to quit but cannot legally buy a vape. The small business owner forced to shut down because of sudden policy changes. The doctor who wants to help but is tangled in red tape.

Then there is the young adult who returns to smoking because all legal alternatives are banned. Every one of these people represents another life put at risk by stubborn policy.

When a government refuses to admit mistakes, people suffer quietly. That is the cost of silence.

What Must Change

If Australia is serious about reducing smoking deaths, the narrative must change immediately.

1. Acknowledge that all nicotine products are not equal. Tobacco smoking kills. Safer alternatives do not.

2. Publish all data, including results that show increases in smoking after the vaping crackdown.

3. Include independent and international experts in the policy process.

4. Treat smokers as adults capable of making informed choices.

5. Demand transparency from academic advisors whose research influences national law.

Australia cannot afford another decade of prohibition disguised as prevention.

A Country Stuck in Reverse

While countries like the United Kingdom and Sweden are celebrating record-low smoking rates, Australia is sliding backwards. We once led the world in tobacco control, but now we are trapped by ideology and fear.

Our government has mistaken control for progress. Our academics have mistaken moral panic for science. And our public has been misled into believing that banning safer products will somehow end addiction.

It will not.

Until the government and its academic advisors face the reality that harm reduction saves lives, Australia will keep claiming moral victories while real people pay the price. Every cigarette lit today is a reminder that prohibition does not work and that denial can kill just as surely as tobacco.

Accountability Matters

It is time for the major institutions that shaped this crisis to be held accountable. The Department of Health and Aged Care, the Therapeutic Goods Administration, the Cancer Council, and the academic networks that advise them have controlled the national narrative for too long without facing real scrutiny. They have used public trust to promote half-truths and selective science while dismissing any evidence that challenges their authority.

These are not just bureaucratic mistakes. They are policy failures with human consequences. Every smoker pushed back to cigarettes, every small business forced underground, every patient turned away by a doctor who fears prescribing nicotine, these outcomes trace directly back to a government that chose ideology over evidence.

Australia deserves better. The public deserves honesty, transparency, and a health system that values harm reduction as much as prevention. Until that happens, the words “public health leadership” will ring hollow.