730-thousand Victorians are smokers and Quit Victoria says their collective habit costs the state 3.8 billion dollars a year.
It wants a renewed focus on reducing smoking to get the rate down from 13.7 per cent to 5 per cent in 2025.
Quit Victoria Director Doctor Sarah White says one loophole that should be closed is allowing patrons to smoke in outdoor drinking areas in pubs and clubs.
"Well we still have the ability, people can go out to smoke in outdoor drinking areas and that's really a problem. A lot of smokers - people trying to quit - tell us that's the worst thing for them because they're outdoors surrounded by people and they're also having some drinks themselves, that really doesn't help. It also is terrible for the serving staff having to be in that smoke-filled environment."
Doctor White says she'd like to see the number of tobacco outlets cut, especially in areas where smoking rates are of particular concern.
"We'd like to see a bit of a rationalisation. We'd like to see a positive licensing scheme come in so that if we have already three or four tobacco retailers around a school we can say no, we don't need any more, we don't need any more in Aboriginal communiities, we don't need any more retailers in rural and regional areas where we already have enough."
One of the 24 organisations involved in the campaign is Thorne Harbour Health, formerly known as the Victorian AIDS Council.
Acting CEO Johann Ruth says smoking rates in LGBTIQ-plus ((Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Intersex)) communities are as much as three times higher than those of the general population.
She says there's awareness of the dangers of smoking but says Victoria is lacking tailored campaigns to help those people to quit.
"We know that those in the LGBTI communities have a very good understanding to do with the negative effects of tobacco use. There does appear to be barriers and that's the area that we want to explore: whether there's barriers between them and quitting."
The Heart Foundation says one of the best ways to reduce the risk of heart disease and other chronic illnesses is to quit cigarettes.
Chief Executive Kellie-Ann Jolly says it's an especially important message for Indigenous Australians.
"Heart disease in our Indigenous communities is extremely high and it's three to four times higher in Indigenous populations than it is in non-Indigenous populations and tobacco-related conditions are really a focus for the Heart Foundation. The other important issue is, part of reaching this target is ensuring that we embed smoking cessation in our healthcare systems including with Aboriginal communities as well. So it's really something that our health professionals are continuing to support those to quit."
She says health professionals play an important role in counselling people on the dangers of smoking.
"What we're really asking our health professionals to do, whether it's doctors or in our case cardiologists or cardiac nurses for those who've had a heart attack or a stroke, is to really have that conversation with their patients about asking them if they still smoke, giving them some support about how to quit, calling the Quitline, nicotine replacement therapy - all those sorts of things are where we're really asking our health professionals to commit to embedding this sort of conversation into their practice."
