Mike Daube: The first thing on international impact is to note the impact that Nigel (Gray) had internationally over the years. It was phenomenal right from the start.

It was Nigel who generated the UICC program and who brought us together to write the Green Book[192] in ’75 or thereabouts. We then re-wrote the same thing for WHO. It was partly what he did, and also the way he did it; the presence he had.

There’s been a bit of discussion about the ratbag approaches (in tobacco control). A phrase Nigel used to use was about making tobacco control also seem like something from the conservative medical establishment. He looked so conservative, and sounded it, despite how radical he was. So the international impact of Nigel was colossal and that helped so many of us.

Second, to the world conference, which has been going since 1967. At that stage they were every three or four years. There was some competition about where they should be held. I remember Steve Woodward saying, ‘You should go for the next world conference in Perth’ and I said it was a rubbish idea. Then I changed my mind and we made a presentation. We had a fabulous team, and people like Maurice (Swanson), Tahir (Turk)[193] and others produced a presentation which was successful.

We organised it as a benevolent dictatorship. Nigel came across to Perth and we sat in a room and wrote the program.

We were told no-one would come to Perth. But it turned out to be the biggest one there had ever been. The organisation was terrific. We somehow hit the right timing. Carmen Lawrence was the Premier of WA. We had strong state government support. All these people came in and spoke superbly including Stan Glantz[194] who was his usual wonderful self and, as ever, had to be dragged off the stage about three hours after he started talking. But it was brilliant.

It did good things for Australia because a lot of younger people were encouraged. And a whole lot of other international activities started from that. There was the first Aboriginal smoking workshop that had been held in Australia. The women’s program, INWAT,[195] started there too. It also made people realise just how many good people there are around Australia.

Ron Borland: Can I add one anecdote to that? Helen Clark who was then the New Zealand Health Minister, and subsequently Prime Minister, gave an enormously impassioned plenary presentation about her struggle with tobacco and her commitment to do something about it. It was very important in moving New Zealand forward.

Mike Daube: We invented the World Conference awards (at that meeting). Later, the Americans called them the Luther Terry Awards. Helen came over and we presented her with an award. New Zealand was then leading. It was encouraging too that a lot of international leaders came and it helped to put Australia on the map.

Melanie Wakefield: I was about 30 at the time and it was the first time I’d been to any kind of international conference. To hear all these amazing inspirational speakers and to realise we had a lot of people in Australia who were lining up and that we could really do something to improve public health was like a shot in the arm for me. It completely cemented my commitment to a career in the kind of research that can make a real difference to public health, to reducing tobacco in particular as the most important risk factor, and that can help define and evaluate the strategies likely to be effective in changing behaviour. It was a kind of watershed moment for me. I’d been primed a little bit by having early success in SA on packs of 15 (cigarettes).

As a research officer at the time, having read the Beaudoin report[196] and having to prepare a briefing note for the Minister’s office. I was about 28 but I could see it was outrageous, the claims that were made in that report that tobacco advertising wouldn’t influence children.

Having had those experiences and then having the opportunity to fly all the way to Perth to attend an international conference was just amazing.

Lyn Roberts: I think we had a little bit to do with all of that. One of the things that was really exciting for us in South Australia at the time was that it was about a year or two after we had set up a Smoking and Health Project.

Trish (Cotter) had kindly been lent to us for three months by Michelle (Scollo) to teach me what I was meant to be doing, which was running a Quit Campaign. Ron, David and others had all helped out.

The word conference was a wonderful opportunity to present our very first results that we had from the campaign. We got Melanie stuck on then and she hasn’t left yet.

Simon Chapman: I’ve just remembered this. My very first international experience was in 1982 when Nigel, who I barely knew, took Garry (Egger) and Paul Magnus[197] and me to Papua New Guinea. Our goal was to convince the PNG health minister to ban tobacco advertising. He did but it was never implemented. But that was a seminal experience for me, I can tell you. When I went back later, it (tobacco advertising) was all over the place. Nevertheless it was in the Ruth Roemer book that PNG had banned tobacco advertising.[198]

Michelle Scollo: The world conference in Perth was incredibly important for Quit Victoria as well. At that stage, we’d been the beneficiaries of a huge increase in funding when VicHealth was set up. We’d gone from about a million dollars a year to four million a year in 1988.

We’d had two years of getting on stream and getting a whole lot of things up and running which we could talk about at the conference. We hired a room at the conference and had it absolutely choc-a-bloc with all the resources that we’d created. We had numerous people coming up from all over the world collecting one of each kit and brochure and strategy plan and whatever. This was all before the internet.

It was an unprecedented opportunity for other countries to find out what you could do if you suddenly got an injection of a decent amount of money in terms of campaigning and program development.

Melanie Wakefield: Didn’t you have a lot of the keynote speakers come to Melbourne either before or after the conference?

Ron Borland: It was immediately before or after the conference. David had organised a whole lot of researchers to visit Melbourne. That was an amazing meeting. My vague recollections of it are that they were telling us that they wanted to learn from us. They were so impressed by what we were doing

Witness to the History of Australian Medicine