Page 1454 - Week 06 - Wednesday, 6 June 2007

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The Assembly voted—

Question so resolved in the affirmative.

Amendment agreed to.

Motion, as amended, agreed to.

Health—smoking

MS PORTER (Ginninderra) (11.53): I move:

That this Assembly:

(1) notes:

(a) that tobacco accounts for the greatest single health burden of disease and injury in Australia, 7.8 per cent of the total burden, according to The Burden of disease and injury in Australia 2003 report by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare;

(b) the significant reforms made by the ACT Government to reduce smoking in our community;

(c) these reforms have included the banning of smoking in enclosed places and further tobacco control measures;

(d) the positive impact these reforms have had on the ACT community; and

(e) that after a thorough consultation process, the ACT Government is planning further tobacco control measures; and

(2) calls on the ACT Health Minister to report to the Assembly on a timetable for these further reforms.

The other evening I managed to catch part of the series Life on Mars on the ABC. I was amazed to see portrayed in this episode, set in the 1970s, two policeman sitting smoking in a hospital ward. I am not sure how accurate a portrayal of the smoking regulations of that time it was, but it did serve to emphasise how far we have advanced in our knowledge and attitude since then. For instance, when I was a young trainee nurse in Wollongong, back in the 1960s, smoking was definitely a popular pastime—particularly, it seemed to me, amongst health professionals. I managed to resist the temptation to join with many of my fellow trainees in this habit, and in fact

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