Page 2205 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 6 June 1990

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Regulations (Amendment) tabled today will be brought into effect.

I would stress that the acceptance of a trial voluntary agreement in this particular area is quite different from the voluntary agreement approach promoted by the tobacco industry with regard to tobacco sales, advertising and promotion. In the case of the restaurant industry, the industry is supportive of the Government's objective of increasing the availability of no-smoking areas to their clients, and will be working towards this end. In the case of the tobacco industry, however, proposed voluntary agreements fall well short of the Government's objectives, which include the elimination of all forms of tobacco advertising and promotion. In the absence of any mutually agreed position, the Government must act to achieve this objective through legislation.

The package of legislation that I have tabled today will give the ACT the most comprehensive range of tobacco control measures yet to be introduced in this country. I believe that this legislation will have broad support within the ACT community and within this Assembly. I now present the explanatory memorandum for the Bill and I also table for members' information the Public Health (Eating Houses) Regulations (Amendment) and the explanatory memorandum to those regulations.

Debate (on motion by Mr Berry) adjourned.

STAMP DUTIES AND TAXES (AMENDMENT) BILL 1990

Debate resumed from 3 May 1990, on motion by Mr Duby:

That this Bill be agreed to in principle.

MS FOLLETT (Leader of the Opposition) (4.18): Mr Deputy Speaker, the Stamp Duties and Taxes (Amendment) Bill is a Bill designed to improve the revenue base of the ACT. The amendments contained in the Bill are a mixture of anti-avoidance measures and new provisions. All of the amendments are designed to bring the ACT into closer line with the stamp duty provisions of other States.

On this basis, the Bill deserves support, and the Labor Party will be voting in favour of it. The proposals contained in the legislation are substantially the same as those which were outlined in my budget last year, so I am pleased to see that the current Government has decided to proceed with them.

I believe that it is important for there to be some degree of consistency across the States and Territories on the implementation of stamp duties, unlike many other taxes. The nature of the stamp duty tax base means that both avoidance and evasion are easy. Some consistency across


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