Access to cigarettes will be severely restricted and smoking in cars with children under 16 will be banned under new tobacco laws approved by the New South Wales cabinet on 29 July.

Under changes to go before State Parliament in September, supermarkets will be banned from displaying cigarettes within six months and small retailers will have to hide packets behind their counters within a year under the laws.
Cigarette vending machines will be restricted to pubs and clubs and they will accept only tokens, which smokers will have to buy from the bar. The machines will not be allowed to display any advertising. Tobacconists will have to black out their windows and within four years they will also have to keep them under counters.
"We're going to take [cigarettes] out of eyesight, and ensure young people aren't tempted into taking up smoking by glossy advertising or marketing pressure when they go shopping,” premier Morris Iemma said.
Simon Chapman, a professor in public health at the University of Sydney, said banning cigarette displays was crucial to lowering the rates of smoking and that New South Wales would be the first state to implement the ban. (pi)