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MR OSBORNE (11.06): Mr Speaker, I would just like to add a little bit to this debate. On Monday, I had the great pleasure of launching Quit Week at the Turner Primary School, and I was given the great opportunity to go up in a hot-air balloon for the first time - a most frightening experience, I must add. Also, this morning, I launched World No Tobacco Day, once again up in that hot-air balloon. I would just like to join Mr Berry in condemning the Rothmans Corporation, and especially their agent, for their recent campaign. I was appalled at Mr Farmer's involvement in the launching of the new brand of cigarettes. Bearing in mind my well-publicised association with Mr Farmer, I was most displeased that he chose to take on that role.

I would also like to agree with Mr Connolly’s statement on role models. I think it is very important that, in this smoking issue, we target the children. I do not think anyone would disagree that the majority of people start smoking in their early to middle teens and that it is looked upon as a trendy issue. What the anti-smoking lobby should be doing is giving alternative role models. I hope that that works out. I would just like to add that this is one issue on which I will be supporting Mr Berry 100 per cent. I applaud him for his work over the last couple of years in trying to outlaw this insidious drug.

MS TUCKER (11.07): The Greens support this motion of Mr Berry's, given the social, environmental and economic costs of tobacco production and consumption. It is becoming widely recognised that tobacco consumption has enormous costs to our society and, as a society, we are responding with financial disincentives and education campaigns. The campaigns run by tobacco companies are very powerful indeed, particularly in attracting young people to smoke. It is appropriate that this Assembly continues to take a firm stand on issues regarding tobacco. There are many other examples of individual lifestyle choices which have extreme ramifications for the whole community. Obvious examples are alcohol and other drug abuse, dietary and recreational choices. It is important that in this debate we consider the causes and consequences of these choices.

There is clear evidence that there are links between a person's social and economic circumstances and their lifestyle choices. Once again, it often comes down to questions of alienation and lack of support for people in the community. As well as imposing punitive measures on the consumption of substances that society deems to have negative social costs, we must tackle these questions. In schools, for example, social relationships and the nature of peer group pressure require a great deal of attention. It does not matter how many graphic films of people dying from cancer are shown; what basically matters to young people is that they feel that they belong to a group and that they feel safe - not what ill health might happen to them in the future.

We have to look at health promotion in a much broader sense. The question of self-esteem is fundamental to a young person's ability to choose to resist peer pressure and develop high self-esteem. While, perhaps, mainly a result of the home environment, self-esteem can also be assisted in the school environment if it allows students to develop their potential in an atmosphere which is supportive and compassionate and which gives greater focus to issues of personal development. Unfortunately, this comes down, once again, to a question of resourcing and financial decisions, if a greater focus is to be placed on issues such as personal development, self-esteem and conflict resolution.

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