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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 08 Hansard (Wednesday, 4 August 2004) . . Page.. 3443 ..

to cigarettes on a near unrestricted level. A primary source of this is vending machines. With cigarette vending machines being permitted only on licensed premises in the ACT, this theoretically should not be a problem. However, it is.

Many pubs do not have somebody on the door during quieter times and often only check ID at the bar. Youths can go into one of the 200 pubs or other licensed premises in the ACT that have cigarette vending machines, walk up to the machine, put in the money and walk out with a pack of cigarettes without even looking at a person, let alone having to present identification. This is a serious problem, a problem that certainly contributes in a significant way to the high levels of smoking among our youths. This bill addresses this problem. Ms Dundas’s legislation addresses youth smoking in a practical manner with an approach that has been sorely missing in previous attempts in this country to reduce smoking among youths.

I want also to emphasise the importance of governments in reducing smoking among our youths. Whilst it is primarily up to parents, governments have a significant role to play. Aside from education programs and taxation changes, governments can very simply reduce youth smoking through reducing access to cigarettes by enforcing tobacco sale legislation.

A 1994 New South Wales survey estimated that “illegal sale of cigarettes could be reduced by as much as 70 per cent through the distribution of letters of warning to retail outlets known to have sold cigarettes to minors”. A simple letter could have such an effect. This would not be costly or burdensome for the government. Simple measures like this have a very large effect, and I would certainly like to see this government look at ways to stop the sale of cigarettes to minors.

The World Bank reports that every day approximately 80,000 to 100,000 young people around the world become addicted to tobacco. The British Medical Journal notes that half of all regular smokers will eventually be killed by their habit. CJ Murray and AD Lopez report that if current trends continue, 250 million children alive today will die from tobacco-related disease. According to the British Medical Bulletin, the average loss of life for all smokers whose deaths are attributable to tobacco is 16 years. This indicates the seriousness of the problem. We need to do something. We cannot condone inaction. This legislation is but a step on the road to solving the problem of youth smoking, but it is a step we must take.

I will be supporting Ms Dundas’s legislation—I understand that other members of this place will also be supporting it—but am concerned about the proposed amendments that are going to be supported by the government. I am concerned that the major parties are amending this legislation. I have to say that Mr Smyth was extremely helpful in working on the smoking legislation that we passed in this place last November. I cannot say the same about Mr Corbell, who was extremely obstructionist and tried to derail that bill until the eleventh hour, when he put forward an amendment in respect of when the ban would be phased in.

Unlike that bill, we are now talking about the availability of cigarettes to children. Why is it that we need a phase-in period for legislation that addresses access by our children to cigarette vending machines? When the minister says that appropriate action needs to be taken and when everyone agrees that smoking is hazardous and that delaying the

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