Page 3126 - Week 10 - Tuesday, 17 October 2006
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Compliance testing is part of a comprehensive strategy involving demand reduction and supply control. This legislation will ensure high levels of compliance with the sales to minors provision of the Tobacco Act, which will in turn impact on the number of new young people who try to commence smoking. In the ACT, the most common age for young people to begin smoking is between 15 and 16, and there is strong evidence to show that if a person does not use tobacco regularly by the age of 18 there is only a small chance that he or she will ever do so. For these reasons, delaying the uptake of smoking, as well as discouraging it entirely, is a major public health goal.
I should say that this is only one element of our response to young people and smoking. There are efforts, both through the education department and the health department, to discourage young people from taking up smoking. And we cannot ignore the fact that we have the highest rate—I think it is coming down, from the last statistics I saw—of young women between the ages of 15 and 19 taking up smoking of anywhere in the country. It is happening here.
Reports from other jurisdictions indicate that compliance tests are successful in reducing sales of smoking products to minors. A report from the New South Wales Central Coast area health authority found that, since the introduction of compliance testing some 12 years ago, the rate of sales to minors has been reduced from over 30 per cent to nil in 2002-03. These are the sorts of figures that we cannot ignore. In 2005 the South Australian department of health reported a significant reduction in sales to minors since commencing their compliance testing seven years ago.
We acknowledge that we cannot directly solve the problem of nicotine addiction. However, provisions can be developed to regulate the supply of and access to tobacco in order to protect young people. It is our duty to produce a fair program of tobacco retailer education, training and compliance testing, and that will be done following the passage of this bill. Mr Smyth has indicated a range of amendments that he would like made. I just flag that the government certainly believes there is some merit in one of his amendments around ensuring that young people who undertake these tests are aged 15 and over; but we will not support the other amendments.
With regard to his concerns around consultation, I am concerned when I hear in debates that people were not spoken to or felt that they were not consulted properly. I understand that two of my advisers have spoken to the law society and they informed my office that there were no concerns with the legislation. All organisations on the list that Mr Smyth spoke about earlier were written to with the discussion paper attached. The AHA were consulted on this issue during consultations around further, more wide-ranging tobacco compliance issues we are looking at. Maybe they did not feel that they were consulted specifically on this bill, but there were discussions with them about pubs and clubs and outdoor areas and some of the other work that we are doing as well. I also understand that the Minister’s Youth Council were provided with the bill and with the discussion paper.
I thank members for their contribution. I acknowledge the support of Mr Smyth and the opposition for this legislation. We will no doubt be discussing this further. I am happy to keep members updated—perhaps after the first round we can see how it is going—and I
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