Page 410 - Week 02 - Thursday, 8 March 2007
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
cannot say which model the ACT should adopt, but I believe we should remain comprehensive in our approach to tobacco control and legislate to ban smoking in cars with children.
Children spend many hours in cars each week, and second-hand smoke in a vehicle has been proven to be 20 times more toxic than in a house. They have no choice if they are confined in a car with a smoker, and research shows that a vehicle that is regularly smoked in has harmful levels of carcinogens. Unlike all other legal substances, tobacco has no safe level of consumption. According to the findings of Action on Smoking and Health in Australia, also known as ASH, children exposed to smoke inside vehicles have a higher risk of asthma, pneumonia, bronchitis, coughing and wheezing, middle ear infection and meningococcal infection.
Some argue that banning smoking in cars with children erodes civil liberties and takes us one step closer to becoming a big brother nation. I believe that that is an absurd notion. We all know how deadly smoking is but it is still the single largest preventable cause of premature death in Australia. We also know that passive smoking kills but people still insist it is their right to smoke around others. If people did not still smoke in vehicles with children there would be no need to legislate, but education and health warnings obviously are not enough and some still insist on subjecting their children, who have little choice in the matter, to second-hand smoke.
While some will claim that this ban will be difficult to police, it should not stop us from making it illegal. It is illegal for people to talk on their mobile phones while driving and it is illegal not to wear seat belts. Similarly, enforcement of banning smoking in cars with children will be opportunistic. If police see a driver smoking in a car with children he or she will be fined and this will set an example to others that the law is enforceable. I believe that public pressure will also play a big part in the enforcement of this law. We know how dangerous passive smoke is, in particular for children, but people still smoke in the confines of vehicles containing children. Drivers would be less likely to do so if it were against the law.
I am pleased to see that smoking in cars with children will be banned in Tasmania, but I believe that much still needs to be done to further reduce the levels of smoking in our community and to stop youth from taking up the habit. I was disappointed to note that Tasmania did not ban tobacco products being displayed in retail outlets and did not move to ban children from selling tobacco products. Displays only assist new smokers to choose a brand and you need to be over 18 to purchase cigarettes, so I believe it is only logical that a person needs to be over 18 to sell cigarettes. Children should not be handling and selling a product that only adults can buy.
I spoke on this issue in November last year and I have long been an advocate for banning smoking in public places. I find it interesting that Senator Humphries jumped on the bandwagon earlier this week and called on the ACT government to enforce a ban. However, I welcome him to the fight to reduce smoking levels in our community. I will continue to lobby to reduce smoking to a negligible level and I hope that one day no-one will take up this terrible habit.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .