Plain tobacco packaging Kingdom (May 2017), New Zealand (June 2018), Norway (July 2018), Ireland (September 2018), Thailand (September 2019), Singapore and Turkey (2020). Belgium, Hungary, Slovenia and Uruguay have plain packaging cigarette laws, but are yet to go into effect. Only indirect evidence of plain packaging's effectiveness was available until its release in Australia. On 24 May 2011, Cancer Council Australia released a review of the evidence supporting the introduction of plain packaging to reduce youth uptake. The review had been conducted by Quit Victoria and Cancer Council Victoria. The review includes 24 peer-reviewed studies conducted over two decades, suggesting that packaging plays
Plain tobacco packaging regulations to enable standardised packaging of tobacco products came into force on 14 March 2018. Distributors were given six weeks to clear old stock and following this retailers were given a further six weeks to dispose of old stock. As a result, only standardised tobacco packaging was permissible after 6 June 2018. Discussion of the need for standardised packaging (formerly called plain packaging), the passage of the legislation through Parliament, and its subsequent coming into force took six years. In April 2012, following an inquiry by the Māori Affairs Select Committee, Government (on recommendation of the then Associate Minister of