Page 1503 - Week 06 - Wednesday, 6 June 2007
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Ms Gallagher: It is around the time frame, yes.
MR SMYTH: The minister says it is around the time frame. It is very important that we make that quite clear from the start. That is why I welcome Mrs Burke’s amendment, which would require the government to inform the Assembly of the time frames and the progress that is being made so that we actually do know what is going on. It does have an effect.
The statistics confirm that it is an urgent problem. Every year in Australia something like 19,000 deaths are related to tobacco products. That is 52 deaths a day. If you take two per cent of 19,000, which would be, on average, the ACT’s percentage, that is 380 deaths in a year. That is one death a day from smoking tobacco related products. Indeed, from the start of this debate at midday today until now, something like 11 Australians died from smoking and tobacco related problems.
Perhaps it is time to actually acknowledge and have a real and serious discussion about where we go to from here. Early intervention is clearly the answer. Tobacco is a legal product and unless somebody wants to change that, it will be for sale. We have to make sure that we get to kids early and alert them to it. If we consider it to be a health risk—and I do—we have to continue to tell them that it is bad for them. Young people are taking it up. Young females, in particular, are taking it up faster than young males. We need to understand the reasons for that as well.
Perhaps the minister might like to enlighten us during the debate as to the effect of recent changes to the enforcement regime. There were few, if any, convictions under the old regime. What has happened? Has it improved it? Has it made a difference? Then we might work out where we go from there. It is a vexed issue. My shadow portfolios cover business, economic development and gaming and racing. The people in the pubs and clubs and the people that are making investments in infrastructure simply want certainty. As the former shadow minister for health, I am aware of the consequences of smoking. We have got to come up with a path that is absolutely clear so that everyone knows where we are travelling and what we are doing.
We have been told that tobacco is a blight on society. Today we had some gratuitous advice from Ms Porter about how the Liberal Party takes money from some tobacco companies. It is a legal product, Ms Porter. If you do not want it to be so, bring the legislation in and ban it. Standing there throwing jibes across the chamber is well and good, but it does take away from the debate. It shows the amount of intellectual rigour that you have put into this case. Equally, I could throw back poker machines. They are another blight on society. A lot of people have problems with poker machines. We all acknowledge that there is problem gambling. Yet you are a beneficiary of profits from poker machines donated to campaigns that help get you elected.
Will you stand up when you finish this debate and commit not to take that money? Let us not have any hypocrisy here. Let us not say, “Curse the Liberal Party. One of their candidates in a federal seat in Victoria took some money from the tobacco lobby that happens to employ hundreds of people in her electorate.” Your campaign was funded from a dividend from the Labor club, and that dividend comes from poker machines. The hypocrisy on this matter is always galling. It is interesting that Mr Osborne, who
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