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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 5 Hansard (15 May) . . Page.. 1552 ..

MRS CARNELL (continuing):

approach of having 33 per cent of licensed premises available for smoking, under all of the conditions that I have already laid out, for a period of 17 months, with a proper timetable involved that our people will oversee, is the appropriate approach. It will save jobs in Canberra. It will give smaller premises an opportunity to either become smoke free or put in extraction systems. I think that is the sensible approach and I think the majority of the Assembly feel the same.

Question resolved in the affirmative.

Bill agreed to in principle.

Bill, by leave, taken as a whole

MR OSBORNE (6.18): Mr Speaker, I move:

Page 2, line 31, clause 5, proposed paragraph 22(2)(b), omit "25%", substitute "one third".

What my amendment does is increase the floor space from 25 per cent to one-third. I have done this because a number of the smaller organisations that I spoke to said to me that the 25 per cent was unworkable. Yesterday I received a fax from a person in an organisation - it was a tavern in Weston, I think - who said that they did a survey one night. They had 91 people in their tavern. Of the 91 people, 78 were smokers. He said to me in the letter that he would have to place that many people in one-quarter of his tavern, which was unworkable. I agreed; so, I have moved this amendment. I might add that it was the space that was raised with me when I first had my discussion with Mrs Carnell.

Mr Speaker, I would like to add a couple of things. Mrs Carnell said that, if the Labor Party had been in government, then all clubs, pubs and taverns would be smoke free. I would argue, as Ms Tucker did, that the legislation as it stands now is flawed. I do not know who was involved in the drafting of it, but I think you need to make a decision. Either you have smoke-free clubs or you do not. My preferred option is that everybody goes smoke free, because unfortunately it creates an advantage for the bigger, more wealthy organisations.

Mr Speaker, I was amazed at the number of phone calls I received today from members of the LCA. I had a phone call from the president of the LCA asking me why I was supporting this. I had phone calls from a number of larger clubs asking me why I was doing this. Mr Speaker, what it did was reaffirm to me that I had done the right thing. I think they see this legislation as a tool by which they can gain a further advantage over the smaller pubs and taverns. I do not think it was designed to do that. I have moved this amendment to raise the floor space from one-quarter to one-third, and I commend the amendment to the Assembly.

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