Tobacco harm reduction is grounded in the principle that people who smoke should have access to safer nicotine options, accurate information, and non-stigmatising support. This section brings together HRA’s policy brief, media commentary, key resources, and advocacy updates on evidence-based approaches to reducing tobacco-related harm. It will continue to grow over time as we track developments in tobacco harm reduction policy, practice, and reform in Australia and internationally.
Tobacco Harm Reduction Policy Brief
On 29 July 2025, HRA launched its new Tobacco Harm Reduction Policy Brief: Adverse Effects of High Cigarette Taxation and the De Facto Prohibition of Vapes. The brief outlines why Australia should urgently reform its current tobacco control strategy to an evidenced-based harm reduction approach including reducing tobacco excise, establishing a legal, regulated market for lower risk nicotine products and, shifting investment from enforcement to regulation…
See also our opinion piece in Crikey.com that supported the launch of our THR Policy Brief:https://www.crikey.com.au/2025/07/30/nicotine-tobacco-cigarettes-harm-reduction-vaping/
Federal Inquiry into the Illegal Tobacco Crisis in Australia
HRA and HRA’s Tobacco Harm Reduction Adviser, Dr Alex Wodak have taken the opportunity to make submissions to the current Federal Government Inquiry into the Illegal Tobacco Crisis in Australia with both submissions linked below…
Australia abandoned harm minimisation on smoking – and fuelled a black market…
Read HRA tobacco harm reduction adviser, Dr Alex Wodak’s piece on 25 May 2026 on why Australia’s current approach to tobacco control is causing more harm than it solves in the independent blog ‘Pearls & Irritations’…
Tobacco Harm Reduction Advocacy
From time to time, HRA’s specialist advisers on tobacco harm reduction, Dr Alex Wodak AM and Dr James Martin, are published in the mainstream and independent media talking about current tobacco policy and advocating on the need for reform. We also publish op-eds and brief commentaries by recognised experts and on behalf of HRA as part of our wider advocacy work on this issue. You can explore some of our tobacco harm reduction advocacy further below…
WA’s New Illicit Tobacco & Vape Laws: Tougher Isn’t Better… A Harm Reduction Perspective…
Western Australia has recently moved to introduce some of the harshest penalties in the country for illicit tobacco and vaping offences. This blog explores this concerning development from a harm reduction perspective and why residents of WA, and frankly all Australians, should be concerned about the increasing creep of the criminal law into people’s lives…
Prohibitive policies drove organised crime in Australia 100 years ago…
It’s happening again…
Organised crime has a long history in Australia. For more than a century, criminal groups have accumulated vast fortunes, committed countless acts of intimidation and coercion and, at times, extreme and spectacular violence. But, as James Martin (HRA Tobacco Harm Reduction Adviser & Deakin Uni Criminologist) and Ed Jegasothy (Senior Lecturer, Sydney Uni) highlight in their new piece in The Conversation today, if we look back at the responses to organised crime and black markets in Australia’s history, we can see governments are making many of the same mistakes now as they did a century ago…
We’re Sorry…
Formal apology letter to 1.3 billion smokers globally from the public health community…
If you are interested in tobacco harm reduction check out this powerful open apology letter published on Substack by Dr Mark Tyndall (MD ScD FRCPC) that sets out why he was moved to issue a public apology to tobacco smokers globally on behalf of the public health community. A bold move, and worth reading…
Vaping in focus: health policy and regulation
Watch HRA’s tobacco harm reduction adviser, Dr James Martin, Criminologist, LaTrobe University speaking at the Victorian Alcohol & Drug Association (VAADA) Conference on 13 – 14 Feb, 2025…