Outdoor smoking ban overturned – but don’t get too comfortable

Pro-smoking forces have won a rare victory in Australia.

After a two-year battle, smokers will again be allowed to light their cigarettes when dining outdoors in Parramatta, a suburb of Sydney, Australia, after the local council deferred to the wishes of restaurateurs concerned about lost profits, according to a story in the Sydney Morning Herald.

”We are so relieved – this is great news,” Omar Besiso, of the Parramatta Business Freedom Association, a group representing 50 businesses, was quoted as saying. ”It was never fair that customers could just leave and go to restaurants in Granville or Merrylands, where they could smoke.

”You can’t stop someone from smoking. We just didn’t want to be disadvantaged because our council won’t allow it.”

But as usual, this is likely to be a short-lived victory – at least as far as smokers are concerned

”The state government will bring in the same ban in 2015 that all restaurants have to comply with,” said Anita Tang, the manager of policy and advocacy at Cancer Council NSW. ”The council’s move is out of step with what the state government wants.”