UPDATE 2.40PM Former Health Minister Nicola Roxon, the woman credited with spearheading an unprecedented win over ‘big tobacco’, has hailed a World Trade Organization decision on Australia’s plain packaging laws a victory for public health policy.

Speaking on Sky News on Friday, Ms Roxon said she was thrilled with the win.

“These reports that have come out overnight make clear that Australia has won this case,” she said.

“It’s very exciting news. It’s upholding common sense. It’s really important that countries like Australia can take action to protect their citizens’ public health and be allowed to do that and not have to face these challenges from the industry.

“It’s a big tick for common sense and for these public health battles that countries should be able to have and should be able to implement these sorts of laws.

Ms Roxon said the tobacco industry had always fought “very hard” and believed that five years on the industry knew they were going to lose.

“But, by having these ongoing fights, they’ve been able to stop other countries who’ve wanted to take action,” she said.

Ms Roxon, whose father Jack died of a tobacco-related illness when she was 10, praised successive governments for defending the laws she guided through parliament in 2011 as health minister.

A year later, as attorney-general, she oversaw their defence in a failed High Court challenge the tobacco companies brought against the government.

The news is a blow to the tobacco industry as the WTO ruling was widely anticipated to give a green light for other countries to roll out similar laws, Bloomberg news reports.

It could have wider implications for alcohol and junk food packaging.

The rules, introduced by the federal government in 2010, go further than health warnings, banning logos and distinctive-coloured cigarette packaging in favour of drab olive packets with brand names printed in small standardised fonts.

Tobacco firms said their trademarks were being infringed, while Cuba, Honduras, Dominican Republic and Indonesia complained at the WTO that the rules constituted an illegal barrier to trade.

Although the WTO’s final ruling is not expected until July, a confidential draft said Australia’s laws were a legitimate public health measure, Bloomberg reported.

A WTO official confirmed the draft was sent to parties to the dispute on Tuesday, but said the WTO doesn’t comment on confidential reports.

Imperial Brands’ profits are most exposed to markets that may implement plain packaging, said analysts at Jefferies.

A spokeswoman for British American Tobacco declined to comment on the ruling until it was made public, but suggested the complainants would keep fighting.

A spokeswoman for Japan Tobacco also declined to comment on the ruling, but said the fact that the draft had been leaked was disconcerting and a breach of WTO rules.

A spokesman for Imperial declined to comment and Philip Morris, the world leader, was not immediately available.