Back in 2012, we wrote about Philip Morris suing Australia for requiring plain packets for cigarettes. Significantly, the company brought that action under a 1993 agreement between Australia and the government of Hong Kong. That‘s because Philip Morris was unable to use the far more important free trade agreement with the US, which Australia had wisely insisted should not contain a corporate sovereignty (ISDS) chapter. Given that experience of being sued by a company simply as result of introducing new laws to protect the health of its citizens, it‘s curious that the newly-installed Australian government seems to be reversing its position: