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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 5 Hansard (13 May) . . Page.. 1343 ..

Clause 12 agreed to.

Clauses 13 and 14, by leave, taken together, and agreed to.

Clause 15 agreed to.

Remainder of Bill, by leave, taken as a whole, and agreed to.

Bill agreed to.

Debate resumed from 20 February 1997, on motion by Mrs Carnell:

That this Bill be agreed to in principle.

MR BERRY (6.34): The Opposition will be supporting this Bill. Mr Speaker, the Bill seeks to transfer to the board the actual amounts rather than the alternative arrangements which have been in place. Health promotion in the Australian Capital Territory was started by the Labor Party and since then it has been improving on an incremental basis. It has now risen to the point where the 5 per cent figure applies to health promotion in the ACT.

There is an issue that causes one to think about this a little bit. If tobacco franchise fees increase, on the one hand you could say that that might indicate a failure of Healthpact, but they would be very happy to take the money and use it. On the other hand, you might say they need the extra money because their policies have not worked and they need to devote more to the issue of tobacco consumption. Mr Speaker, I trust that Healthpact will not be holding out a welcoming hand for extra tobacco fees, because in some way they would have to accept that their policies need to be better focused to reduce tobacco fees. In essence, that means that they are undermining their own future in terms of health promotion. I trust the day will come when they do not have a lot of money to play with from tobacco fees, but I fear that that is a long way off.

It is certainly a long way off while ever the Government chooses to extend the period where the promotion of the consumption of tobacco will occur in licensed premises. The Government has played into the hands of the tobacco companies and the licensed premises in the Australian Capital Territory. It has, in fact, discriminated against those law-abiding people in licensed premises who have chosen to put in air handling equipment in accordance with the relevant legislation. The Government ought to be ashamed of itself. Its supporters, too, should be ashamed of themselves because of the Government's intention to extend this period of tobacco consumption. Mr Speaker, 21/2 years was enough. We did not need an extra 18 months. Notwithstanding that, the Labor Party will be supporting this Bill.

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