Page 935 - Week 03 - Thursday, 14 March 1991
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Can the Chief Minister tell us who informed him of the existence of those houses and where those houses are located, since the residents of Calwell went looking for them out of an obvious interest in the matter and failed to find them; whether or not those houses bore any physical resemblance to the design of the houses in question in Calwell; and whether or not those residents interfered with their neighbours' amenities in the same manner as that which is claimed by residents of Calwell?
MR KAINE: Mr Speaker, I think I might have shredded the piece of paper on which the information came.
Smokers' Rights
MR STEFANIAK: My question is directed to the Minister for Health. Is the Minister aware of an advertisement on page 3 of today's Canberra Times encouraging smokers to ring a given number and give their views on the current state of smokers' rights? Can the Minister reveal who is behind this advertisement and why it has been placed?
Ms Follett: It is nothing to do with him. It is a private company.
MR HUMPHRIES: Ms Follett might not want me to answer the question; but I am very happy to do so, since Mr Stefaniak asked it. It will not come as a surprise to members to learn that the 60 Minutes commercial television program placed the advertisement in today's newspaper. It appears that the program intends to come to Canberra to do a classic beat-up on the Assembly's anti-tobacco legislation.
Apparently it is the intention of the 60 Minutes team to pack a hall full of angry smokers, who will then provide some colourful footage of aggrieved citizens who have been treated like third class citizens. I am not sure whether this will occur or not, and I would be the last person to discourage people from putting forward their views. On past performance, however, I do not have great faith in 60 Minutes, which I would describe as the tabloid television of the news world, producing a fair and balanced report on the legislation.
I want to make it clear to 60 Minutes that the legislation is particularly aimed at discouraging young people from taking up smoking. Smoking is the greatest cause of premature death and ill health in Australia, with 50 Australians dying every day of the week from smoking-related disease. Of great concern to this Government, as I am sure it is of concern to the Opposition, is the fact that close to half of all 15-year-old girls in the Territory are smokers.
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