Page 3928 - Week 14 - Tuesday, 23 October 1990
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for some six months to allow those people in the age range 16 to 17 years who already smoke to take some measures to quit the habit. I realise there will still be problems, even with that notice, but I think that at least we can attempt to overcome them through this kind of process.
The legislation cannot be implemented immediately. Time is required to acquaint retailers, vending machine operators, advertising companies, tobacco companies and others of their changed responsibilities. Time must also be allowed for advertising to be removed from shopfronts, et cetera. It is particularly important to allow time for young people affected by those changes to make appropriate adjustments in their behaviour and, if necessary, seek assistance to quit the habit.
It is intended that we undertake information campaigns to advise all those affected of the changes. It is intended also to undertake negotiations with, for example, the business sector about the advertising ban and the appropriate amount of time to allow for current advertising to be removed. However, we are still firm in the intention that this legislation will be in effect no later than six months from the day on which the legislation is passed into law.
Mr Speaker, I am grateful to Mr Moore for his suggestion that we should take advantage of the college system - a college system which retains some 95 or more per cent of students in the ACT - as a vehicle for ensuring the ACT does get very clearly to young smokers the message that the rules are changing and that we need to consider behaviour changes to accompany those new rules. It is not possible, obviously, to change the behaviour of everybody; but it is, I think, an opportunity to get through at least to those people about the new rules.
I have been very cheered, Mr Speaker, by the overwhelming support the community has indicated towards this legislation. There is clear evidence, in my view, that voluntary agreements of the kind that tobacco companies have urged on the Government are not a satisfactory way of resolving problems in this area. They can go, even by the admission of the tobacco companies themselves, only a small way towards satisfying the objectives in this legislation and as such are an unacceptable solution to the problem that has been posed to this Territory, namely, the problem generated by the death of something like one person every week from illnesses related to tobacco consumption.
I also have to indicate that I have been cheered by the extent to which the Health Promotion Fund's role in this whole process has been successful to date and shows every prospect of being successful in the future. The level of tobacco sponsorship of sports in the ACT, I think, has now been confirmed to be relatively small - in the order of $70,000 to $100,000 - and much of that is accounted for by major events of the kind that may not be affected by this legislation, namely, the Winfield Cup and others.
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