Page 3120 - Week 10 - Tuesday, 17 October 2006
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Mr Speaker, as I have already pointed out, in South Australia we saw that the impact of these measures did enhance compliance. But at the same time, I think we have to say to the government and to everyone else involved in this issue—and that includes ordinary members of the community—that it is about us all doing as much as we can to alert people to the negative impacts of smoking. What we want to do is make sure that we get the impacts that were achieved in South Australia. But it will also involve—and I am sure that the minister will outline what the government is doing—publicity about illegal sales and compliance. We will need to work consistently with the retailers to make sure that they are aware that if we want to achieve a consistent reduction over a four or five-year period we will all have to be vigilant.
Mr Speaker, I also have concerns—and I have spoken to groups such as the Youth Coalition—about the impact of this legislation on the young people who will be assisting. They have some concerns, as do I and others. But I think I have been assured by what the minister’s staff and officials have told me about the process that will be put in place to protect the young people. Certainly, we will be looking at how they will be affected.
I have some concerns about some of the consultation that was undertaken. I asked the minister’s officials what consultation was undertaken and they provided a list. But some of the people that I have spoken to were unaware that the legislation was to be introduced. For instance, the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Retail Traders Association and the Australian Hotels Association had no idea that this legislation was being proposed. Indeed, the response we got from the Law Society of the ACT was that, although they were aware, they had concerns about not necessarily the impact on the law but how it would work in the courts.
The list of organisations that the minister’s officials tell me they consulted includes all tobacco retailers. The minister might outline how and what was done. Was a letter sent out and, if so, did the letter have a paragraph that contained a whole lot of other information? We perhaps should have been much clearer in what we were telling the retailer. Did we get onto some of the peak bodies as well to get a coordinated response? I am sure the minister will mention that when she closes the debate.
I am disappointed that, for instance, contact with the law society related just to the nature of considerations by the Supreme Court and the Court of Appeal. This sort of legislation has been appealed twice in other jurisdictions. In both cases the appeals were on the basis of entrapment and those appeals were quashed. So I do not think there is any doubt that we can and should do this, but I think it would have been far better had the law society been more involved. Perhaps I have been speaking to the wrong person in the law society but the minister can clarify that as well.
I will move some amendments at the appropriate time. The South Australian experience used young people over the age of 14. In this legislation we have adapted the definition of “young person” from the Children and Young People Act 1999. That act defines a young person to be a person who is 12 years or older but not yet an adult. So it is somebody from the age of 12 to 18. In South Australia they used people from about 14 onwards. I have some concerns about very young people being used in this way.
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