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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 08 Hansard (Wednesday, 4 August 2004) . . Page.. 3446 ..

real debate about the sale of tobacco, which is whether or not it should be sold at all. That is a debate for another day.

The question before us today is the ban on vending machines, and this will affect clubs, pubs and taverns in the ACT—licensed premises. Again, it is half a solution and not the total solution to the problem. We all clearly acknowledge that the sale of tobacco and the take-up of tobacco by young Australians is of concern to us all.

The minister has just kindly given me a summary of some surveys that have found that vending machines are one of the sources that are most easy for young people to access. It is quite interesting to read the surveys but I wonder about the applicability of those surveys to the ACT. I have spoken to a number of nightclub proprietors and a couple of managers of clubs and they are not specifically aware of the problem. I have had no evidence put to me of the nature of the problem here in the ACT and, indeed, the minister tells me there have been no breaches. Oddly enough, there is some money in this year’s budget to carry out some observation to determine what the scale of the problem is in the ACT.

So I come back to my original premise that this is tinkering at the edges when perhaps what is really required is the bigger debate. We have to remember that when we phase out these machines, the clubs, the pubs and the taverns will still be able to sell cigarettes over the counter.

The problem as I see it is how to come up with a real strategy to address the long-term problem that tobacco is. Perhaps this bill is a step forward. I am not convinced it is the step forward that we might think it is in the ACT but maybe it is a step that we need to take. On the other hand, I have been approached by a number of the proprietors of pubs, nightclubs and taverns and some club CEOs who are wary about the effect of this. This is why we are taking a more cautious approach—an approach that brings the proposals in line with the decision to ban the use of tobacco inside licensed premises that comes into effect on 1 December 2006.

Tobacco licences are renewed annually—I understand on 1 September. It is proposed that licences will continue to run through until 31 August 2006 and then they will cease a full two months before the ban comes into place in the pubs, clubs and taverns. But the interesting thing is—and perhaps someone will foreshadow an amendment that will ban the sale of cigarettes in licensed premises altogether—that the clubs, the pubs and the taverns will still be able to sell these products.

I think there is a dilemma here for us. On one hand we have got federal legislation that allows free trade between the states and on the other hand we have mutual recognition legislation, and Ms Tucker and members of previous Assemblies would be aware of those regulations. Perhaps it is time for a larger debate here about the real impact of tobacco smoking. The minister quoted some figures about the impact of tobacco smoking, the number of deaths, and the cost to the health system. But maybe it is time to look at the much larger issue in a more concerted way rather than the tinkering at the edges that is going on here today. And this is really what this bill is—it is a bit of tinkering at the edges.

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