Tobacco is considered as one of the leading causes of preventable diseases and deaths in Australia and therefore, the legislation here is all set to fight against the usage of it. In this regard, a plain packaging legislation for cigarettes into parliament has been recently introduced by the Federal Health Minister Nicola Roxon and she said that her government is ready to defend this bill from any kind of legal threats.

According to this law, the legislation has made it compulsory to sell the cigarettes in plain packs with a large, graphic health warning over it and along with this, a second bill is also expected to be cleared stating the removal of company trademarks from the packs.

As told by Ms Roxon to the parliament, by this act of legislation, it clearly indicates Australia to have the toughest tobacco promotion laws in the world. She added, "We're taking this action because tobacco is not like any other legal product. When used as intended it is lethal".

However, since last few decades, there has been noticed a reduction in Australia's smoking rates but even then, every year around 15,000 Australians are killed due to tobacco use.

In response to this, the tobacco industry by giving several legal challenges to the legislation is warning it saying that this could cost the Government billions of dollars.