Page 4779 - Week 11 - Thursday, 20 October 2011
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of concern that significant socioeconomic differentials exist in the proportion of people who are current smokers.
For example, recent statistics issued by Catholic Health Australia show that for women aged between 25 and 44, about 66 per cent of those living in public housing smoke, compared to around 15 per cent of those with a tertiary education. An online report provided by the Cancer Council of Victoria states that rates of smoking amongst single mothers is about 46 per cent, with women aged between 18 and 29 years old reporting the highest rates at 59 per cent. The Cancer Council also is concerned that people with a mental illness have a much higher rate of smoking. For example, in Australia up to 73 per cent of men and 56 per cent of women suffering from serious psychiatric illnesses are smokers.
In stating these figures I do not seek to exempt the behaviour of smokers, as this pattern is having a detrimental impact on children from disadvantaged backgrounds—something which Mr Hanson has referred to. However, the relationship between smoking and income must influence how government implements anti-smoking laws and campaigns. The government should ensure that people from low income backgrounds, particularly women, have education programs targeted to them and can easily access smoking cessation programs.
It is my strong belief that many young mothers probably do not wish to be smokers and they especially would not want to cause harm to their children. Many low income and single mothers would, I am sure, want to give up, but sadly they are just trying to get through the day. In implementing anti-smoking schemes such as the legislation being presented today, the government must speak directly to these vulnerable women and support them to give up smoking.
The Greens applauded the move last year to list nicotine patches on the pharmaceutical benefits scheme. This will help many people on low incomes to quit smoking. The normal cost of a four-week course of nicotine patches is up to $140, but now, if a person gets a prescription from their doctor, they will only have to pay $33.30, or $5.40 if they have a health care card.
I wrote to the Minister for Health last week, seeking clarification as to whether the ACT government will seek to increase this targeting of anti-smoking campaigns and smoking cessation programs to vulnerable groups, such as low income mothers. The minister’s reply advised that in addition to the distribution of posters to educational facilities, the Health Directorate will provide information for inclusion in publications produced by the Community Services Directorate, which I think is a very positive step. In fact, the Greens made the suggestion in particular about including information in Housing ACT publications, to target some of those vulnerable populations.
On the issue of strict liability, I too acknowledge that Civil Liberties has written to all parties, concerned that the ACT government had not stated a reason for having a strict liability offence in the bill. The Greens have given consideration to Civil Liberties’ concerns. The question we examined was whether or not the legislation could achieve the same results if the offence was not a strict liability and we could not see how that could be done.
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