Tasmania wants to increase the legal age to buy cigarettes from 18 to create a 'tobacco free generation'

FRANK COLETTA
7 July 2016
DAILY MAIL AUSTRALIA
Cigarette sales could be banned to anyone aged under 25 under a proposal being considered by politicians in Tasmania.
MP Ivan Dean wants to go further and phase out cigarettes and is trying to stop the sale of tobacco to anyone born after the year 2000.
While that plan faces a protracted legal and political battle the Tasmanian parliament is already considering raising the purchase age from 18 to 21.
The plan to lift it further to age 25 is seen as a compromise between the two positions.
Ivan Dean (right) is pushing ahead with his tobacco free generation bill in the Tasmanian parliament
Mr Dean, a former Australian Army soldier and veteran police commander, told Daily Mail Australia he wants to create a tobacco free generation.
‘My position is I want to move forward with a plan to remove tobacco and people accessing it,’ he said on Thursday.
‘What I have always said is the best position is the Tobacco Free Generation (TFG) bill, that there is no right time for smoking at all, ever.’
He conceded that he may struggle to get his legislation through the Tasmanian parliament and the and the ban on sales to anyone under 25 is a fallback.
‘I want to get this (TFG) through, but I know it is no good pushing a position or a bill that is not going to get up,’ Mr Dean added.
‘That is what doctors are saying, there’s a lot of evidence showing that the brain is fully developed at age 25, so if there is to be an age that is the ideal age that we should be targeting.’
He believes the success of radical smoking reforms in his home state will prove the catalyst for other Australian states and territories following.
‘There is huge interest in this worldwide, I’ve got no doubt that once one state identifies with this process others will,’ he added.
‘The tobacco industry say they are selling a legal product and they come up with strong reasons why it (a ban) should not be supported but they consider their bottom line only.’
He claimed a recent Cancer Council survey showed ’75 per cent support’ for his tobacco free generation bill.