Page 3121 - Week 10 - Tuesday, 17 October 2006
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Therefore, the first amendment that I will move will raise the age to 15 years or older—so it will be a 15 to 18-year-old.
The other amendments look at reporting. I note that this will be reported on by the chief executive. I think it would be a good idea to have the minister come back and tell the Assembly how effective this has been. I also believe that we should have a sunset clause. If this process is still working after two years it will be reasonable to keep it going. But if for some reason we find that it has not been successful in respect of compliance or that there have been negative impacts on the young people—and we are dealing with young people—then I think we should come back and discuss this legislation. I will move those amendments at the appropriate time.
Mr Speaker, our position is quite clear. The legislation makes it quite clear that if retailers and their staff act within the law there will be no problems for anyone. There will be beneficial outcomes, particularly for people who have not taken up smoking. Moreover, the use of young people, provided the arrangements are carefully supervised, to ensure compliance does not appear to create any difficulties for young people. Finally, the legislation seems to have beneficial effects in that it enhances the level of compliance. That said, the opposition will be supporting the bill.
DR FOSKEY (Molonglo) (11.16): I certainly support attempts to encourage compliance with the laws surrounding the sale of tobacco as one means to try and reduce smoking by young people. But I am afraid I cannot support the bill in its current state and, since I do not expect my one dissenting vote to carry the day, I will be supporting some of the opposition’s amendments.
At present, whether we like it or not, cigarette smoking is one of the markers by which young people believe that they gain some kind of status in the community. Despite our increasing understanding of the impacts of tobacco smoking, its practice is still in some way glorified. We have all seen newspaper reports where time after time tobacco companies are revealed to be complicit in hiding the truth about the effect of their products. So there is absolutely no reason to condone any actions of tobacco companies, which still implicitly promote their products to young people. Let us face it: the earlier they get hooked, the more tobacco and cigarette products they will buy over a lifetime. What corporations or companies are doing is part of the practice of participating in a free economy.
I believe that if we want to attack smoking amongst young people, we have to go right there and attack the idea that smoking is cool—and it is still seen by them as cool—and we have to understand that young people will not identify with the older person that they see on the cigarette packets, because that is not them; I am sure that some people here can remember when they were young and how they felt about older people. Plus young people always think that they can stop.
Stopping smoking amongst young people is a mix of education, role models and policing the places where young people smoke—and I am afraid that that is still in schools. The Tobacco (Compliance Testing) Amendment Bill makes provision for a person under the age of 18, with supervision from a health officer, to walk into a shop and attempt to buy a packet of cigarettes, and if the purchase is successful the owner of that tobacco sales licence will be charged.
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