Page 3840 - Week 10 - Wednesday, 27 August 2008
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Mrs Burke tonight had a vote each way. She said she will vote for the bill, but she does not support the point of sale. If she does not support the point of sale, she should stand up, move an amendment, oppose it in the bill, stop being lazy and actually put her money where her mouth is. What she said tonight is: “We don’t like it. We’re worried about the impact it has on businesses. We want to beat up the government, but, hang on, it won’t be very politically comfortable for us if we oppose point-of-sale displays for tobacco purchases.” She understands that the community supports tobacco control measures.
That is what we have seen tonight—the lazy approach from the opposition yet again. They have done nothing around tobacco control. Four years in this place and they have done absolutely nothing. Mrs Burke is tonight having a vote each way: “We’ll support your bill, but it’s just the government crunching the numbers through, forcing through this legislation. We’ll support it, but we don’t actually agree with it. We’ll revisit it, and we’ll unban the ban.” That is the argument from Mrs Burke tonight. It was a Mrs Burke special.
It was better than prime time TV tonight to sit down here and listen to Mrs Burke’s speech. It is what we expect from her; it is not rational, as usual. It fails on every test of rationality. She speaks from information she has been given from the tobacco industry, and then, after all of that, she says, “We’ll support the bill, but it is really the majority government pushing this through.” What a load of rubbish. We are seeing tonight that the shadow Minister for Health does not support point-of-sale display bans on tobacco. Shame on you, Mrs Burke.
Question resolved in the affirmative.
Bill agreed to in principle.
Detail stage
Bill as a whole.
MS GALLAGHER (Molonglo—Minister for Health, Minister for Children and Young People, Minister for Disability and Community Services, Minister for Women) (9.04): I seek leave to move amendments Nos 1 to 5 circulated in my name together.
Leave granted.
MS GALLAGHER: I move amendments Nos 1 to 5 circulated in my name together [see schedule 2 at page 3872]. I table a supplementary explanatory statement to the government amendments.
I will speak to all of these amendments together. The first amendment to clause 2 of the bill provides for the commencement of four sections the day after the bill is notified. These provisions relate to the repeal of provisions that allowed expired retail tobacconists licences to be revived. The clauses should be commenced to coincide with the new licensing period that commences on 1 September 2008. The bill has a
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