On Monday, the government offered to settle the case with Strathfield after conceding there was a legal flaw in the delegate's report recommending merger with Burwood and Canada Bay. Mr Toole described it as "a legal technicality". But when Mr Toole then indicated he would simply reissue the report with the problem fixed, Mr Robertson said the council had decided to "bat on" because there were far more serious allegations about the government's merger process. On Wednesday he began his case saying the relatively brief public hearings were inadequate because they cut across the implied right of political free speech in the constitution.

Mr Baird said he was committed to seeing the mergers through. "From our point of view it's not perfect, and I don't think anyone could sayas you might find elsewhere in the developed world. For example, in the U.K., 82 percent of the average pack goes to taxes.

CORNISH: So you also write another issue is just consolidation in the industry. So apparently in the mid-'90s, the tobacco market had seven major players. What's it down to now?

MALONEY: Today there are just two. There's Altria, which makes Marlboro cigarettes, and there's Reynolds American, which makes Newports and Camels. There are, however, global tobacco players that after having pulled out in the early 2000s are now trying to get back into the U.S. So the U.S., which once was considered kind of a toxic market, is now one of the most appealing markets in the world.

CORNISH: You said toxic. Is that because of the stigma