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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2003 Week 12 Hansard (19 November) . . Page.. 4347 ..

MRS CROSS (continuing):

businesses, their members, their clubs. They are not interested in deliberately causing harm to anybody. I think all the members in this place agree with the fact that we all want to ban smoking.

Mr Speaker, this has been an interesting experience for me as a relatively new member-unlike you, the wise one of this Assembly. I have had to sit down with people on a number of occasions to try to work out a conciliatory approach-an approach that is good for the health of Canberra, an approach that is good for the medical profession, the clubs, the hotels, the pubs, the general community. And I will tell you what: you are damned if you do and damned if you don't. On top of that, we have public servants who are trying to do their job, the poor buggers. I really admire them because having to answer to a minister in the way he wants things to go is really difficult.

At the same time, I do not believe this minister wants to see any of the people in this city harmed-not at all. In fact, I commend Ms MacDonald for her position on this. I was not here when she put her motion forward last year. I was ill at that stage, so I was not aware of the motion until very recently. I have always admired your position and stance on non-smoking, Ms MacDonald. But I must say that the minister misrepresented me, and this excuse for a press release is quite naughty. It is like a petulant schoolboy sulking when he does not get his way.

As I said, the bill provides for a phase in of 12 months. However, because of the reasons I mentioned, I agree that this is not an appropriate timeframe. My amendment will allow all stakeholders time to adjust yet will provide an absolute cut-off time to give Canberrans smoke-free enclosed public places. It is important to have a demonstrative cut-off date so that we do not have a staggered finishing time for different clubs. A distinct cut-off date will make it easier to publicise the event and for hotel and club patrons to be aware of when they can no longer light up in these establishments.

I should stress at this point that, as I said earlier, when I first had this bill drafted earlier this year my intention was to ban smoking within 12 months of the bill being passed. However, extensive consultations with stakeholders indicated to me that this timeline would be wonderful for workers but, of course, difficult for others.

There is also politics, which is about numbers, as we know, and the practical reality of getting bills passed. Often we must compromise, but hopefully not too much in this case as we are talking about the health and welfare of a large number of workers in the ACT. My amendment means a delay in respect of total smoke-free areas but it is a manageable delay. I am aware that to delay the deadline means that more people will be exposed to more smoke. However, I also believe that it is the best solution available in order to address what the world now knows is a serious health issue.

I am rather dismayed, Mr Speaker, that in my many attempts to try to find consensus with everybody the most cooperative people in this place were in the opposition, the Democrats and the Greens. The government, who tabled the discussion paper on this issue and even had a motion put forward to the Assembly last year, did not have any bill-it was in the ether.

Mr Corbell: When did you approach me? That's just a lie. It's an outrageous lie.

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