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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1999 Week 13 Hansard (9 December) . . Page.. 4061 ..

MR MOORE (continuing):

Fourth: the opportunity to achieve increased compliance in a way which is likely to be quicker, less costly and more effective than legal action through the courts;

Fifth: ensuring that people who sell tobacco products are aware of their legal responsibilities and, through the offence of selling tobacco products without a licence, preventing opportunistic and potentially unscrupulous sellers from selling tobacco products at markets, sporting events, around schools, etc.;

Sixth: contributing to the elimination of the illegal trade in bulk loose tobacco, which completely circumvents tobacco tax;

Seventh: it is a system with which retailers and wholesalers are familiar and supportive;

Eighth: it provides for an appeal system through the Administrative Appeals Tribunal rather than going directly to the courts;

Ninth: it provides funding for an education, monitoring and enforcement program while not requiring excessively high fees (which are currently $150 a year for tobacco retail outlets); and, quite importantly,

Tenth: it takes advantage of efficiencies resulting from licensing responsibilities being vested in the same agency as that with responsibility for other tobacco issues, with responsibility for issuing a range of other licences (such as food licences) and with public health officers who are trained and experienced in a range of public health compliance measures.

For these advantages to be realised, the legislation proposes a number of key provisions:

Anyone retailing or wholesaling tobacco products in the ACT must have a tobacco licence (as required by the current Tobacco Licensing Act);

The occupier of premises on which a cigarette vending machine is located must have a tobacco retail licence (existing legislation licenses only the wholesaler);

Each premises from which tobacco products are retailed must be separately licenced (existing legislation provides for group licences);

Requirements that tobacco retailers only buy tobacco products from licensed wholesalers and that licensed wholesalers only sell tobacco products to licensed retailers;

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