Political barriers to evidence-based tobacco control policy: Cronyism and cognitive dissonance, a Tasmanian case study

Tasmania led in several areas of tobacco control legislation reform in the period 1997 to 2010. Despite this, Tasmania lagged in other crucial areas, particularly the allocation of resources for community education, mass media campaigns and cessation programmes. Key impediments were crony capitalism; the conservative ideology of ‘white male’ politicians; cognitive dissonance of smoking politicians; a lack of perception of priority regarding the scientific research evidence about smoking risk; and delays caused by the tobacco industry. This study analyses the political situation in Tasmania and argues that evidence-based progress on tobacco control resource allocation was not established until 2013.