Page 3901 - Week 13 - Thursday, 17 October 1991
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MR STEFANIAK (11.28): There was very much in Mr Moore's powerful and moving speech that I and, I think, my Liberal colleagues would agree with, although we will not be supporting his motion, as I understand the Government will not. There is probably a lot in what he said about section 92 of the Constitution and also the rationale for the two exemptions in the Act brought down last year by my colleague Mr Humphries. The exemptions were the Winfield Cup and the Benson and Hedges cricket. Those two competitions, of course, are extraterritorial; they go throughout the States of the Commonwealth, not just the ACT. So, there are big problems there. This is why, unfortunately, Mr Moore's attempt at disallowance will not and, in fact, cannot be supported.
That is not to say that there is no force in what Mr Moore says. Twenty-three thousand Australians die each year; probably 400 now each year in the Territory, or a little over one per day. Mr Moore is quite right when he says that $2.5 billion a year is spent on health care and health-related costs as a result of people smoking tobacco. I understand that the revenue government gets from the tobacco companies is still only a little over $1m. Perhaps there is some force in the argument that this very harmful drug should be banned. I do not know whether any government, either State or Federal, would have the guts to do that; but ultimately that might be the most responsible thing to do.
There are some heartening figures from the long campaign over the last 20 years to warn people of the dangers of tobacco. After World War II about four million Australians were smokers, and in those days we had only seven or eight million Australians. The number of smokers has not risen, which means that a hell of a lot more Australians are not smoking. One of the most worrying aspects in recent times, however, has been the incidence of young women and girls in their teens taking up smoking. This certainly is not good. It is something the health promotion people are homing in on so that this very vulnerable and impressionable age group can be targeted and warned of the dangers of taking up smoking.
Smoking certainly is not smart; it is the very antithesis of playing sport well. When I smoked regularly - I think it was a packet of Winfield a day from about 1976 through to 1983, and I still, rather stupidly, have the odd cigar - I used to amuse my football team mates by coming in before the game and coughing up my guts in preparation for going out on the field. Perhaps Chicka Ferguson might be a little different, but it certainly was not terribly conducive to my ability to play that sport. I found when I stopped, after a particularly bad bout of flu, that I did not cough and splutter so much in the mornings and before and during physical activity. It certainly is not good for any individual - I suspect even someone as talented as Chicka Ferguson - to be a smoker and to play sport.
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