Page 189 - Week 01 - Wednesday, 23 February 1994
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Mr Connolly: You are really clutching at straws here, are you not, to justify your position?
MRS CARNELL: Absolutely not. We also know from the statistics that in under - - -
Mr Humphries: It is a very good point to make.
Mr Connolly: You do not believe in this, Gary. You are a strong anti-smoker. We know that.
MRS CARNELL: So am I, Mr Connolly, absolutely; but we have to get a Bill that works. We know that a very large percentage of the under-25 segment of our population smoke. This is very unfortunate and something I suspect all of us would attempt to stop, by education and by all of the other approaches that we have all supported in the past; but at this stage they are engaging in a legal activity, one that this Labor Government gets some $26m a year out of.
Mr Connolly: The Liberal Government in New South Wales probably gets about $400m a year.
MRS CARNELL: Absolutely; I am not criticising that. I am just making the point - - -
Mr Connolly: You once were a principal advocate of anti-smoking.
MADAM SPEAKER: Order!
MRS CARNELL: I am just making the point that a very large percentage of this group of people smoke. We are bringing forward legislation that will create a very unlevel playing field in the places that they go to at night. This legislation will discourage those places from having full meal service. Assuming that these bars want to allow these under-25s to continue to smoke, they are going to be encouraged to get rid of their meals areas. That has to be a bad thing to do from a public health perspective. Mr Berry claims that the major reason for going down this track is to improve public health. Why is he concentrating on restaurants? Are they just an easy target? Smokers consume a far greater number of cigarettes while they are drinking than while they are eating. Mr Berry has seen all the statistics on that. That is a fact. So why are we suggesting that we should have a total ban on smoking in restaurants while we do not have even a timeframe for the places that are a substantially greater problem for public health - bars, taverns and clubs?
Mr Berry: Read my introductory speech; read all of it.
MRS CARNELL: I have read it, and there is no timeframe at all, Mr Berry, for how you are going to introduce no smoking in those areas. What is the timeframe? We will be very interested to hear it.
Mr Moore: The whole thing was discussed on pages 6 and 7, without a timeframe.
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