Cancer Council Australia and the National Heart Foundation of Australia today called on all political parties to back the plan to phase in plain packaging of tobacco products, as a new, big-budget media campaign funded by the tobacco industry seeks to roll back the important health measure.

Cancer Council Australia Chief Executive Officer, Professor Ian Olver, and Heart Foundation CEO, Dr Lyn Roberts, said reports in today's media of an imminent big-budget tobacco industry campaign to overturn the proposed health move added to evidence that glossy, branded packs helped to sell tobacco products.

"Despite good progress in tobacco control, on average around 20 Australians still die prematurely from cancer every day because they smoked - many of them addicted to nicotine from a young age," Professor Olver said.

"Glossy, branded packaging is one of the remaining ways for advertising tobacco products in Australia. The industry knows this, which is why it is putting so much money into trying to reverse what is a groundbreaking public health policy commitment.

"We were delighted to welcome the Government's announcement in May to phase in plain packaging for tobacco products from 2012 and what we believed was Opposition's tacit support for the proposal.

"So we hope the tobacco industry's campaign, aimed at maintaining profits while thousands of Australians continue to die of smoking-related cancers, will prompt all political parties to voice their support for plain packaging of tobacco products."

Dr Roberts said that despite its self-serving claims about businesses and jobs, the tobacco industry contributed only $1 billion to the Australian economy while costing the community an estimated $31 billion in healthcare expenses, lost productivity and a range of other liabilities.

"The economic arguments for smoking simply do not stack up," Dr Roberts said.

"And it is impossible to put a price on the number of Australians who will not die prematurely from cardiovascular or coronary heart disease, if the lure to smoke is reduced by the introduction of plain packaging.

"The Australian public - and our political parties - should see this big-budget tobacco industry campaign for what it is: self-interest from an industry that profits from death and disease.

"The industry also knows the rest of the world is watching."