Page 3909 - Week 13 - Thursday, 17 October 1991
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MR BERRY: We will go over that one too - the former Government, all that sort of stuff. The fact is that $900,000 is going to be spent by the Health Promotion Fund in this Territory, and there will be no duplicity about it either, Mr Moore - no doublespeak. We will get on with the job and provide the funds for health promotion, as was planned in the first place. We will provide support for the legislation that you supported in this house.
What we have in front of us is an exemption - a regrettable one, no doubt, one that I dislike intensely and one that I will continue to dislike whenever it arises. I will work to ensure that every effort is made to prevent it in future.
Mr Duby: Does that mean that you will not go to the game?
Mr Collaery: He will lie in front of the sign.
MR BERRY: You can all laugh; but we know, for example, in relation to - - -
Mr Duby: Will you go to the game?
MR BERRY: Of course I will go to the game as Minister for Sport, if I have exempted it in accordance with the legislation that Mr Duby and the rest of you supported.
One example of how the promotion of health in sport has worked by way of the Health Promotion Fund is in soccer. The former Government last year supported a buy-out of tobacco support for soccer, and the second round of that is continuing this year. That is a staged process, and that process will continue. The same will apply at every opportunity that arises in relation to these other sports, including cricket and rugby league, given the opportunity.
Mr Duby: And racing.
MR BERRY: Racing is another example where tobacco sponsorship locally was bought out by the Health Promotion Fund. From memory, it was about $30,000 for a horse race. That was done by the former Government and that was the intent of the Health Promotion Fund. So, we are moving on. There is a staged process of reducing the amount of tobacco advertising and sponsorship in the Territory. But we have to accept that we are a very small island in New South Wales, which supports tobacco sponsorship and advertising. (Extension of time granted)
It is up to the ACT to keep the pressure on tobacco companies to ensure that there is a diminishing amount of advertising and sponsorship in order that our young people do not take up consumption of tobacco. At the end of the day, not only does it affect their quality of life, it also affects demand and the services that are provided within the hospital system generally. That is well documented.
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