Page 3912 - Week 13 - Thursday, 17 October 1991
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I speak from experience when I say that those companies will react in a cynical and destructive fashion if they find that they are unable to hold these major events in the ACT. Last year, while Minister, I was written to by a company seeking to exempt a particular activity - in fact, a photographic display in the ACT. The request was extremely unspecific and vague, and I imagined, on receipt of that letter, that they were going to follow up with a formal application for exemption. I wrote back to them without making specific promises about the exemption, but I expected to receive further details of their request in due course.
The company put out a press release indicating that they had been refused an exemption by the Government. That was a false claim and it was rebutted by me the following day in the media. I believe that their attempt to attack the legislation and the Government's resolve in this matter was rebutted on that occasion, but it indicates the depths to which those organisations will go if they believe that they can successfully undercut this kind of legislation.
I am pleased to hear that the Government believes that it is moving quickly in this area. I welcomed the Labor Party's support last year; but I have to say that I do not believe that the Government is moving particularly quickly in this area, as in a number of other areas. The fact of life is that, if anything, the pace of reform of the tobacco law has slowed down under the second Follett Government. Mr Berry was very fond of criticising the Alliance Government for our lack of resolve on this issue, despite the fact that they supported the legislation pretty well in toto when it came forward. Now we see a number of things that I would have expected to be happening rather sooner in fact not happening at all, or being put indefinitely on the back burner.
Mr Berry was quick to say that the Health Promotion Fund ought to be constituted as a statutory authority. He told the Estimates Committee only last night that the Health Promotion Fund has no immediate prospect of changing its status and will remain in its present form for some time to come. I got a rather more urgent intimation from the message he was giving us some months ago. Mr Berry has gone in the opposite direction by removing the trust account status of the fund for the time being. I wonder how long that temporary measure will be in place. I would welcome from the Minister a firm date when we are going to see a reconstituted and beefed up Health Promotion Fund.
I also indicate that I was gravely disappointed by the Government's slow progress on the establishment of no-smoking zones in restaurants. It was my belief in office that we would quickly be able to resolve whether or not legislation was required to establish no-smoking zones. I understand now that we do not even have the beginning of the survey which will ascertain the extent of the need for legislation in this area. It just has not happened.
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