Dorothy Reading: Yes, that’s right. We had the advantage of that in Victoria, and no-one else ever afterwards had that advantage. So it was much harder subsequently because the entire game was then clear.

David Hill: There was another example of surprise that I think Mike (Daube) will know about. That was the health warnings report[100] that Ron {Borland} and I did which was a commission from the MCDS.[101] I think Mike was behind that commissioning. That process was a very good example of building trust between organisations outside of government to people in government to advance the cause.

The report was a very well kept secret until its release and of course the tobacco industry was incandescent with rage about the content of it.

Mike Daube: It was a superb report.

Two further quick observations. First, there is one group whose contribution shouldn’t be overlooked, that’s the middle-ranking bureaucrats. We lucked – it’s happened over the years and it’s happening even now – we lucked on some terrific middle-ranking bureaucrats in the federal Health Department of the time who enabled us to make it happen; they did everything that was needed and it couldn’t have happened without them. They made a huge difference, as did the research that underpinned the legislation and convinced politicians.

One other lesson I learned about the tobacco industry – which arose from the time when David White[102] was (Victorian) Health Minister and he was leading the MCDS committee and overseeing negotiations with the tobacco industry. I remember I came over from WA and there was a meeting in a conference room between health representatives and the industry and David’s office was across the way. There was some issue where we left the industry people to discuss their position, and then we reconvened. We found that the industry group were meeting in the corridor because they were absolutely convinced that what they were saying in the conference room was being recorded. That gives a bit of an insight into how the industry thought and probably still thinks.

Harley Stanton: And shows what they were doing to us at the time.

Andrew Herington:[103] I think one of the key things about why the tobacco campaign was so successful was that it was a very good marriage between the activities of the non-government sector - creating a bridgehead and pushing the boundaries forward - and governments working out how far they could step into the gap.

That’s been the way ever since the very first Quit sponsorship of the Fitzroy Football Club.[104] While expenditure of health budget money on commercial professional sport was thought to be very contentious at the time, the Victorian Government thought that the groundwork had been done. And similarly, all the work that Nigel and people here did in preparing the groundwork for the Health Promotion Foundation concept allowed the Government to organise itself to actually put the concept into effect.

John Cain as Premier had a special Cabinet Committee and the difference between the ideal that the non-government sector wanted and what was politically possible was distinct, but we managed to get quite close. And ever since that time there’s been a running debate about labelling and then plain packaging. And all the way through we’ve seen the same pattern with the groundwork created outside government and, then, governments feeling confident enough to step into the space.

Witness to the History of Australian Medicine