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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1999 Week 9 Hansard (2 September) . . Page.. 2853 ..

MR KAINE (continuing):

I have referred to the size of the print. Why is that we have to get down to specifying that a product information notice means a notice in sans serif type no character of which exceeds 72 points in size - that is, two centimetres in height and 1.5 centimetres in width? It has to be black lettering on a white background or white lettering on a black background but not both. Mr Speaker, we really are at the point of the absurd. I cannot do a card in red and black. It is illegal.

Then we come to some very interesting aspects of this Bill. You can only place a vending machine in a bar room, a casino or a place where gaming machines are operated. What is so special about them? That means that if you do not gamble and you do not drink you cannot have access to a vending machine for tobacco products. Who on earth thought that one up?

Mr Rugendyke: That is absurd.

MR KAINE: It is totally absurd. Furthermore, an occupier of a retail outlet on unlicensed premises shall not provide more than one point of sale at the outlet, but if you have licensed premised you can have up to five. Why? Where is the logic in all of this, and how in the name of heaven is that going to achieve the stated objective - to prevent children from getting access to tobacco products?

The Bill is an absurdity. Just think of what this is going to cost the public purse to enforce. It will be a pretty penny. At the end of the day it offers no guarantees whatsoever that it will prevent even one young person from becoming a smoker. If Mr Moore can demonstrate to me how anything in that Bill is going to stop a 15-year-old kid from getting hold of a cigarette if he wants one, I would love to hear it. It is not going to have any effect whatsoever.

Of course, this says nothing about the adverse effect it will have on the economy of this Territory, which the Chief Minister holds in such high regard, if Mr Moore does not. Shopfitting companies will enjoy a brief surge in business while they build new display units with unbroken outer display surfaces not exceeding one square metre. How many jobs does that translate to? I am surprised the Minister has not told us. But for the myriad of small businesses which sell tobacco products the Bill promises nothing short of a kick in a very vital part of their anatomy.

It is even possible to envisage an increase in conventional crime flowing from this Bill. I can see Mr Moore asking why. I will tell him. The severe limits on stock inventory at point of sale will increase the frequency with which staff of small businesses - for example, service stations - must leave the counter to restock dispensing units or display cases, presumably from some remote location where the stock is locked away under lock and key so that nobody can get at it. The high risk of theft at service stations means the stock areas must be locked at night. Out-of-stock situations will occur, inconveniencing customers and adding costs to small business while staff go to a locked storage area to bring out fresh supplies, leaving the counter unattended. It is easy to imagine what might happen in a service station when the console operator has to leave his post to restock the tobacco display - an open invitation to thieves.

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