Big tobacco want the APS to be force-fed their spin

Skimming through the submissions to PM&C’s discussion paper on reform of the Australian Public Service, surely the most intriguing submission has to be from British American Tobacco Australasia.

It seems they have a persecution complex about health policy being developed without evidence, and without consultation that includes them. Of course. Far better to emulate the American political system where half the people elected do it on the back of tobacco lobbyists and funding!

What they fail to mention is that this ‘evidence’ line worked for decades for them, spinning the “no conclusive evidence” mantra for decades longer than they should have been allowed to get away with it. Their problem is that they would have us believe that an absolutely overwhelming body of evidence can never be “conclusive”. (A lot of parallels there with the current ‘debates’ over the validity of climate change research…)

And then there’s also no mention of their involvement in the manufacturing of fraudulent ‘evidence’ through carefully crafted and tobacco-funded ‘research’ by dodgy organisations.

BATA then goes on in their submission to raise heartfelt concerns that the Federal Health Minister Nicola Roxon has proposed a number of initiatives to further rein in promotion of tobacco products, including agreeing to the World Health Organisation’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.

“The risk in this process is that domestic policy runs secondary to international initiatives which do not represent the views of all affected stakeholders or government portfolios. Reform of the APS is therefore paramount if Australia is to remain in control of its own destiny.”

To paraphrase:

“If all countries sign up to this common Framework, then we’ll never be able to achieve watered down controls in any of them, regardless of how much we spend on election donations.”