Transparent lies down under

There was a time when the 'public health' racket used a bit of imagination when they misled the public. It sometimes took a little effort to unpick their tricks. These days, however, they just lie to your face in such an flagrant and obvious way that there is no fun in debunking them.

Flat out lying has been their only option in Australia since plain packaging flopped. The latest deceit was parroted by the gullible ABC last week...

The rate of smoking among young people in Australia has dropped to a record low, and there is hope it could be the early signs of a potentially smoke-free generation...

This was based on a study of sorts in an obscure journal which claims that...

Australian adolescent smoking is at a record low, with only 3.4% of people aged 12–17 smoking daily

This immediately struck me as being suspicious because I remember seeing this graph on Dick Puddlecote's blog on several occasions:

Those figures come from the Australian government and they are correct. You can check them here.

This isn't rocket science. 3.4% is more than 2.5%. It is also more than 3.2%. Even an ABC reporter should be able to see that.

There is nothing more I can say about this without insulting your intelligence. Since youth smoking is quite obviously not at a record low, the news report and the journal article that spawned it are castles built on sand.

Needless to say, this garbage had a political purpose, as the ABC article made clear:

The data is being used to highlight the effectiveness of plain packaging laws...

And if you add an 'in' before 'effectiveness', that's exactly what it does.

h/t Catallaxy Files