Amidst protestations and applause, Australia is set to strictly rein in on tobacco marketing within its borders come next year as the country imposes its plain cigarette packaging laws that aim to strip the products of their sleek images, thus giving consumers straight-forward information on the substances they puff in to their system.

Experts view the landmark legislation, reportedly closely-monitored by key countries like Canada, New Zealand and the United Kingdom for possible emulation, as a sort of a coup for Prime Minister Julia Gillard that will leave an indelible mark on many Australians.

For one, Andrew Hughes of the Australian National University told Time Magazine that the new government measures would clearly define cigarette products before the eyes of smokers, especially for those who are in the early stages of what health experts termed as a hazardous habit.

With cigarette plain packaging in full force, Hughes said that "it will take away any relationship that the consumer has," with a specific tobacco brand, which stressed for some smokers define their status.

That notion, he added, will soon change or will all-together slowly evaporate into thin air.

"The consumer won't understand why they would pay more for one type of cigarette and not another. (Tobacco companies) will not go to the effort of making premium products as there's no incentive," Hughes was quoted by Time as saying.

The new laws will also reinforce Australia's in-place anti-smoking policies that strongly discourage consumers from patronising the product or picking up the habit, which the government said kills thousands each year.

By effectively marginalising tobacco products, Ms Gillard hopes that smokers in Australia will dwindle to as much as 10 percent by 2018 from its present level of 15 percent.

Of course, the most affected sector of the new laws - the tobacco industry - has vowed to challenge the new government policy that the sector claim will slowly kill them by violating their rights.

Two major entities from the industry, Philip Morris and the British American Tobacco Australia (BATA) had indicated that they would launch spirited challenges against the cigarette plain packaging law through arbitration and lawsuits.

According to Time, the tobacco industry fights for its very existence in Australia, which has been endangered by Ms Gillard's new policy that takes away their marketing strength and intellectual properties, as they claim.

Yet legal experts argued that with the federal government not actually using cigarette makers' trademarks and merely putting them aside, both Philip Morris and BATA have no case at all.

On its part, advocacy group Cancer Council of Australia lauds the government for its adamant stand against smoking despite likely economic repercussions.

"It was one of the last opportunities that the tobacco companies have had to advertise their product," the group said in supporting the new laws that they believe could convince many youngsters to shy away from cigarette smoking and be spared of its ill-effects.