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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 5 Hansard (15 May) . . Page.. 1538 ..

MR BERRY (continuing):

It was meant to apply to all workers - not just to workers in the hotel and club industry, but to all workers. I do not think anybody in the liquor licensing area was too happy about the legislation put forward by Labor. None of the licensed clubs was really happy about it and the pubs and taverns were certainly unhappy about it.

As time passed, a smoke-free workplaces code of practice developed. It was gazetted on 25 May 1994. The timetable that was presented by the Occupational Health and Safety Council was that the development of the policy should occur within 12 months; but this could be brought forward by agreement between employers and employees, the code says, with the policy to be fully implemented within three years of the code's gazettal on 25 May 1994. It should have been fully gazetted by 25 May 1997. In due course, Labor lost office, and what did this Liberal Government opposite do in relation to the smoke-free workplaces code of practice? Nothing. Not a thing. And that is where the problem lies.

I will now talk about the Moore-Liberal amendments to the legislation. What are the politics of them? The politics are that there was an election in the offing, much the same as there is now, and the Australian Hotels Association put the pressure on these people and campaigned very strongly against Labor's tobacco laws. Mr Moore and the Liberals leapt on the bandwagon with them and sold out to the tobacco companies. It is as clear as that. There is just no other way of describing it. It was the first sell-out. We are now approaching the second. The approach that was taken by the Liberals and Mr Moore then followed in the wake of an inquiry described as Clearing the Air.

Mr Moore: The report was called Clearing the Air. That is another thing you have not got quite right - something else that is not quite right.

MR BERRY: Mr Moore is starting to flinch a little bit, and he is starting to get a bit agitated because he has been attached to the tobacco companies well and truly. We are fixing him up, because he is now pretty well known as attached to the tobacco industry. In a submission to the inquiry which resulted in the Clearing the Air report - - -

Mr Moore: On a point of order, Mr Speaker: I understand that imputations are highly disorderly. If Mr Berry sees me as attached to the tobacco companies, I wonder whether you would ask him to explain in what way.

MR BERRY: It is not a point of order to ask me to explain, but I am quite happy to.

MR SPEAKER: Thank you.

MR BERRY: Mr Moore would like to add the AHA and the tobacco industry to his short list of friends. I am not for a moment suggesting - I have said this before in this place - that Mr Moore is on the take from the tobacco industry or from the Australian Hotels Association, because I think they have worked out that it is not worth the money.

Mr Moore: Whatever the reasons, Wayne, it does not matter; I am not. Thank you.

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