Page 2904 - Week 09 - Thursday, 18 August 2005
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that arrangements will be put in place for more involvement on the part of the residents of that village. There will be greater accountability of the activities in that village to the residents of that village.
It is also my understanding that the conversations with Centacare have been fruitful. The people from Centacare who have been speaking to us are quite happy with the arrangements that will ensue. I am particularly encouraged that the administrative regime, the management regime, at Ainslie Village that will ensue after the changes will be for the better for those people who live there.
The people at Ainslie Village need assistance, security and a sense of ownership and home. It would be inappropriate for any government, in funding a management regime within that village, to do anything but that. That is the whole idea.
MRS BURKE: Mr Speaker, I have a supplementary question. What support mechanisms will you put in place to ensure that some of the more vulnerable tenants continue to receive the required level of specialist care, given that an organisation such as Centacare will not be there to provide full assistance to tenants?
MR HARGREAVES: Mrs Burke presumes that Centacare will not be there at all. That is incorrect. The regime that will apply in Ainslie Village will mean enhanced support to those people. It will encourage peer support for those people. It will be a new direction, and a direction that is embraced by Centacare.
Health—smoking
MS MacDONALD: Mr Speaker, my question is to the Minister for Health, Mr Corbell. I note from today’s press that the government is moving to ban the sale of fruit flavoured cigarettes. Minister, would you please inform the Assembly how this move is yet another demonstration of the government’s commitment to protect the health of young Canberrans?
MR CORBELL: I thank Ms MacDonald for the question. ACT Health Protection Services do regular investigations of tobacco retailers to ensure that they are complying with the conditions of their licence. During those investigations, they have detected the sale in Canberra of fruit flavoured cigarettes. I brought one of those in here to show members. This one is called lemon fresh cigarettes. Another one is called strawberry flavour cigarettes. As you can see, the packaging is designed to be very appealing and attractive. The smell of the flavouring is very strong.
These cigarettes send exactly the wrong message to young people in our community. They send the message that smoking is tasty; that smoking is a bit like having a lolly or a flavoured soft drink; and that it has no serious health impacts. Quite clearly, we do not consider, as a government, this to be an appropriate or responsible approach to the sale of tobacco in our community.
For that reason, I announced yesterday that the government would be acting to ban the sale of fruit flavoured cigarettes in the ACT. We will be the first state or territory to do this. We will do this initially by inserting conditions into tobacco licences that prohibit
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