Windermere MLC Ivan Dean introduced a tobacco-free generation bill to the upper house in 2014, which would prohibit the sale of cigarettes to anyone born after the year 2000.

Mr Ferguson has instead pushed to raise the minimum smoking age to 21 or 25 in his bid to make Tasmania the healthiest population by 2025.

“Research and practical evidence from overseas supports raising the minimum legal smoking age as an effective way to target the most at-risk age category for smoking uptake and the key problem of secondary supply to teens,” he said earlier this year.

“Increasing the legal smoking age would simply be an extension of existing laws, which are understood and work well.

“Retailers would be subject to the same monitoring and compliance checks as at present, and would simply be required to check a different number on a person’s identification card in compliance with a new law.”

SmokeFree Tasmania’s Dr Nick Towle said raising the legal smoking age implied there was a safe age to begin smoking.

“Evidence shows that increasing the minimum legal smoking age by a few years will shift the age at which young people begin smoking to their late teens,” he said.

“This may achieve a small reduction in the uptake of smoking by young people, but simply does not go far enough to protect young pregnant women and babies from harm caused by smoking.

“Raising the minimum legal smoking age to 21 runs counter to the US trend to shift the focus onto sellers.”

Health analyst Martyn Goddard has thrown his support behind Mr Ferguson’s policy after his analysis found the rate of smoking among Tasmanians aged 15 to 24 had risen 6.4 per cent.