Page 1960 - Week 07 - Thursday, 31 May 1990
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Recruitment to tobacco smoking is often targeted at the young - particularly young women - because once you catch them with a couple of smokes you have got them for a long time, as those who have smoked know. Then we are heading towards the ruination of our health. Problems include premature ageing and deterioration of the health of those around them. Anybody who does not smoke and attends a licensed club these days will notice the smoke-filled atmosphere and perhaps even suffer a little bit of anxiety from the effects of breathing somebody else's tobacco smoke.
Labor has a good record in relation to this. We initiated the tobacco argument in this Assembly and I am quite proud to have been involved in that. We set in place the taxes to raise money for the health promotion fund. That was one of the things that we were able to do that I am sure will make a mark on the health of many people in the ACT. I hope that it also makes a mark on the social acceptability of smoking because, after all, that is where a lot of the money needs to go. It needs to go in the direction of education and promotion through all sorts of organisations for health in the community.
We were keen to get this legislation before the house but time overtook us and we were not able to do so. In opposition I indicated at a very early stage that it was my intention to introduce a private member's Bill to continue with the struggle to deliver better health for Territorians. We would have done that had we not been blocked from having the legislation drafted because of the Government's indication that it was going to introduce legislation.
We have not yet seen that legislation. I know I prepared and sent drafting instructions to the appropriate people in the Administration about midway through December but here we are at a stage where, whilst those drafting instructions have been held up by promises from the Government that the legislation would be introduced, we have no legislation before the house. This means that six months have been lost and I just wonder how many people have taken up smoking in those six months - how many young people. We know that many would have died assisted by the effects of tobacco addiction and many would have given up, but the real problem for society is those that have taken it up in that period. I think the six months that have passed could be measured as a loss to the delivery of public health services and health promotion in the Territory.
The revenue which was put aside went into the health promotion fund. That fund is not yet fully operational, although the Minister has seen fit to release some of the money for projects which have not come under the sort of scrutiny one would expect to be the case when the fund is operational. I know that the Minister has now set up an advisory group to advise him in relation to the
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