Page 3757 - Week 13 - Wednesday, 17 October 1990
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TOBACCO (AMENDMENT) BILL 1990
Debate resumed from 6 June 1990, on motion by Mr Humphries:
That this Bill be agreed to in principle.
MR BERRY (4.09): This legislation, Mr Deputy Speaker, is very important for the future of health services in the ACT. It coincides in one degree or another with initiatives that have been taken in other parts of this country. I think we have to accept that there are few of us who have not had a relation or a friend who has suffered the ill effects of tobacco consumption. These days there are varying reports, but I think the most authoritative ones state that there are about 23,000 Australians who die before their time because of the consumption of tobacco products in one form or another. It is also reported that 280 or so ACT residents die before their time as a result of consumption of that dreaded weed. That is approaching one a day. So that is something that we can very easily focus on as Territorians.
In his introductory statement the Minister said that the cost to the people of Australia is about $2 billion annually. Some of the complaints that people suffer from, the most notable of which is heart disease, impact heavily on families, the population generally, and the delivery of health services across Australia. They take up an undue time and an undue resource provided by the community across Australia. Of course, there are other cancers and complaints which form part of a long list; but some that I can recall are the oral cancers, lung cancer and vascular disease. We often hear, too, of people who lose limbs as a result of poor circulation, which in one degree or another is attributed to the consumption of tobacco products. That is a pretty terrifying prospect for anybody. It is bad enough to suffer the loss of a limb as a result of an accident, but it is terrible indeed to suffer the loss of a limb as a result of the consumption of a product which has been considered for so long as merely leisure. As has been done in other States, we have to act. It is time to act. The Labor Opposition will be supporting the enactment of legislation to reduce the consumption of tobacco products in the community.
Mr Deputy Speaker, it is a fact that many people give up the habit, many people are giving up the habit, and many people die before their time as a result of the habit. Of course, that leads to a reduction in the tobacco consuming public unless more can be encouraged to take up the habit. There are not too many people of mature years who are prepared to begin smoking, so the focus of those who have an interest in the sale of tobacco products - and it is that focus which is of most concern to the community - is the young, because it is in the interests of the tobacco companies and the tobacco industry generally to promote the commencement of the consumption of tobacco amongst our young. We have all seen the means by which the tobacco
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