Page 5420 - Week 15 - Tuesday, 8 December 2009
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implement this legislation. But it is somewhat overly punitive for the small pubs in the community.
This amendment may be perceived by some as an attempt to water down aspects of the bill. I do not consider it in that way. Indeed, I think that this is a practical application and the amendment will actually make this bill more effective in its implementation. The reality would be that, where a venue is forced to introduce a total smoking ban on its outdoor area, this legislation will actually force smokers onto public spaces, and in some cases directly adjacent areas to where a smoking ban is in place. My amendment will stop this and will actually reduce the community’s exposure to environmental tobacco smoke.
Mr Speaker, I am happy to confess that I once was a smoker and I frequented a number of the fine establishments here in the ACT. I can give my own example of visiting establishments like Filthy McFaddens, the Durham and the Holy Grail in Kingston, the Belgian Beer Cafe—
Mr Barr: Very inner-south of you, Jeremy!
MR HANSON: Very inner-south of me. I used to live in Kingston in my younger days, Mr Barr. As a smoker in those days—
Mrs Dunne: Were you ever ejected from Filthy McFaddens by my daughter, perhaps?
MR HANSON: Possibly so, Mrs Dunne. Occasionally, as a smoker, I would go outside to have a cigarette and, if I was not allowed into an area which was established for that purpose, the reality is that smokers will move either onto pavements or further out into Green Square. So the negative consequence is that smokers simply will continue to smoke; we know that is the case. What will happen is that people who are enjoying our public areas will now have smokers essentially impinging on them because they are being forced out of a designated area that is leased by the pub or the club. So it will have a negative unintended consequence by not allowing the smaller pubs and clubs to establish a DOSA in 100 per cent of their areas where they have a smaller area—certainly not in the case where they have a big area.
I would note as well that there is no provision in this legislation to establish buffer areas around the smoke-free public areas. I will again use Green Square as an example, as we probably all know it. If you do make that a non-smoking area, there is no four-metre buffer outside that area so you could simply stand next to where the non-smoking area is and smoke the cigarette directly next to people in a non-smoking area, without any screen or buffer, as I read the legislation.
My understanding is that the Greens have already provided information that they will not be supporting the opposition’s amendment. I am yet to hear from the government but in this case I take it that no news is not good news.
Ms Gallagher: I thought we had told you.
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