Page 3911 - Week 13 - Thursday, 17 October 1991
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They do so at the risk, ultimately, of the lives of young people who take up smoking and, in some cases, die from that habit.
Because of that view, it is vitally important that this Assembly protect and strengthen the role of that legislation and the capacity to grant exemptions to particular tobacco companies in certain circumstances, not as a device to weaken the Act but rather as a device to preserve the strength and integrity of the Act. I am prepared to accept the Minister's assurance that the use of the exemption for this particular occasion does not detract from the operation of the Act and will preserve the value of the Act for other occasions.
I will explain what I mean by that. Clearly, if the Government were to exempt frequently, it would make a mockery of the Act. Equally, not to exempt at all would undermine the spirit and the operation of the Act. Tobacco companies would be able and very willing to make the most of those refusals and to play up the fact that the ACT was missing out on important sporting, cultural or other events. They would say quickly and emphatically, and no doubt with some advertising dollars behind them, that the ACT was missing out because of these tough government regulations. They would say that the people of the ACT were suffering under a regime which deprived them of access to the same sporting and cultural events that other Australians enjoyed.
On this side of the house, and I imagine the Government feels the same way, we do not want that kind of thing to be happening. We do not want this legislation to be undermined by that kind of comment. We want to preserve the legislation in such a form that ultimately it will embrace all sporting and cultural activities in the ACT. Ultimately, events of that kind will have been outlawed across the country through the concerted operation not just of governments in this Territory but of governments across the whole country, both State and Federal. I believe very firmly that we are going down that path.
It is only a matter of time before all governments in this country accept and acknowledge that sponsorship of sporting and cultural events is advertising of tobacco products, pure and simple, and that the best way of dealing with that advertising is to ban the sponsorship. I believe that it can be done, and we are heading down that path. Paradoxically, this exemption is one way of making sure that that happens. We do not wish to give succour. We do not wish to strengthen the hand of tobacco companies and make them believe that they have weapons to use against legislation of this kind because major events are turned away from the ACT.
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