Page 3900 - Week 13 - Thursday, 17 October 1991
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a series of problems and challenged the Constitution. Sir Garfield Barwick really made his name by challenging issues under section 92 of the Constitution. The most famous was the Commonwealth Bank Bill introduced by the Labor Government just after the Second World War. There is definitely a problem with section 92 of the Constitution.
But perhaps we should ask ourselves: What would be the advantage if this matter of tobacco went to the High Court and the challenge was there? Would there be such community outrage that the Federal Government would accept that it also had a responsibility in this area and that it should be finding ways to take over this sort of sponsorship? The methodology used by the ACT Government with the Canberra Cannons in taking over their sponsorship is ideal.
Let us get this advertising of the killer drug away from where our young people can be influenced by it. I see this motion of disallowance as a start. The Winfield Cup is next. It is entirely inappropriate that the Winfield Cup competition should be supported in the way it is, even to the use of the name, advocating that young people involved in the sport should be involved in cigarette smoking. The companies, the cricket boards and the rugby league associations need to be put on notice. They need to know that this is unacceptable.
If we are not prepared to do it now, and I am given to understand that the numbers are not with me, let us not just say, "We will stage the introduction of this legislation". Let us set a time. Give us a time, Minister, when you will refuse to sign these sorts of exemptions. Let us set a time. Let us not make it too far away. Three hundred and sixty-eight people a year are dying in Canberra. We are talking about $2.4 billion a year across Australia. It is time for us to take a harder line on this drug.
The method of dealing with tobacco is not to prohibit it. People have the right to harm themselves, if that is what they decide to do. But we can certainly ensure that the message getting through to our young, of an association between cigarettes and sport, between cigarettes and their heroes, is not going to continue. It is an entirely inappropriate message.
The message should be: "If you are going to smoke, you are going to be sick. If you are going to smoke, you are much more likely to die early. If you are going to smoke, you are much more likely to get cancer. If you are going to smoke, you are going to find it bloody difficult to give up, even though you really want to". Those are the sorts of messages we need to get across, not the association of sport with this killer drug.
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