Ivan Dean, Speeches Index

Wednesday 24 November 2010

PUBLIC HEALTH AMENDMENT BILL 2010

Mr DEAN ( Windermere ) - I support this very clearly and I support any legislation at all that is designed to control smoking and prevent and prohibit people taking up what I call an insidious activity, a lawful activity, unfortunately, in smoking. I think most members in this Chamber would be aware of my strong position on this in the local government area, Madam President. I have pursued this with a vengeance and I will continue to pursue it.

I, like the member for Western Tiers, in fact tried to smoke when I was in the military and it was done obviously for stress purposes as you get yourself into those very stressful positions and you do anything to try to relieve that stress but I think I would have smoked one cigarette and that was about the end of it. I just could not tolerate the smell of it and everything else about it, in fact. I support the Government.

Very clearly, Madam President, public tolerance of tobacco smoke now is really becoming very low, not just in Australia and Tasmania but right throughout the world. People now realise the impacts of it, they know what it can do and therefore are taking a very strong stance. There have been significant breakthroughs around the world with some countries prohibiting smoking and simply designating it to some areas, and other countries and places have stopped smoking in streets and all number of different areas.

It is interesting, Madam President, at lunchtime I had the pleasure of dining with a number of aldermen and guests from Ikeda in Japan and I think it is fair to say that in Japan, going back about seven to eight years ago, they were very relaxed in relation to smoking. However, I was told at lunchtime that they have now taken strong steps to prevent smoking in their country and that goes from the sale of cigarettes right through to the smoking of cigarettes in the streets. In some prefectures, 80 per cent of smoking in streets is prohibited - 20 per cent of the streets in some of these places is identified for smokers to smoke in but she was saying that 80 per cent of streets in some of these places is now controlled and well policed. It was indicated that the dropping of a cigarette butt will be noticed by somebody, the police or whomever, and action will be taken. Quite a substantial fine will be imposed. She was saying that there are real moves in Japan to try to clean up smoking and make it a healthier place. It was indicated that there is a special period of time identified as 'rush hour' in these streets where smokers can smoke, but those rush hours are very well policed and controlled so it would be interesting to see how it operated. They say it is working well. Osaka, in one area in particular, is taking a strong lead here.

Tasmania has a long way to go. From the last figures I had, I think it was 24.9 per cent of people in this State smoke, whereas I think the national average was about 18.59 per cent or thereabouts. Tasmania is dragging the chain; we are winning in an area where we should be losing. We have to do a lot more here and it is not good enough that there is that big difference between the national position and our position moving forward. It calls for some strong action. Some local governments are taking some strong action and other local governments in this State have taken no action in relation to smoking at all. The argument here is, 'Should it be up to local government or to the State Government to take the strong position so there is consistency around the State?' Very clearly it is a State issue, very clearly there is a State responsibility. They are the ones who should be setting smoking legislation moving forward, not local governments. It is a nonsense to think that now you cannot smoke in Elizabeth Mall. You can go to Launceston and you can smoke in the Brisbane Street Mall. If I get my way, that will finish very shortly because I have moved motions on that. There have been surveys done - and I cannot give you details of the surveys totally because it has not come out openly in a public meeting as yet - but it did come out in a public meeting when I asked a question a week ago, that there was strong support - 80 per cent of people - for people not smoking in the mall, bus transit stations, covered or closed areas. Hence there will be some legislation coming through, but the State is the one that should be standing up here and fixing this problem. The litter emanating from smoking is a disgrace as well and does not do any good for us.

New South Wales is currently debating this matter very strongly as well. They are saying that it is a State issue as well and I think they are asking the State to take action there.

The packaging and display side of things on premises is a real issue because that is what entices a lot of people to smoke: the way it is advertised and the way the product is shown in particular to young children. They are taken by colour and the way displays occur. I commend the Government here for taking this strong position on ensuring that the packaging is controlled. I agree with the comment that it is about de-normalising smoking in the eyes of young children and that is why there is this need to control cigarette smoking openly in these areas such as malls where young children watch this activity, they see it happening and after a while many children come to think that this is a normal thing; it is a thing you should do. I think the stronger we are with our position here, the greater the opportunity to de-normalise it to get through to these kids that it is not the normal way and it is not cool. That is the other thing we need to show. A lot of kids used to think that it was cool to smoke so we need to ensure that we can get rid of that image.

Mr Wilkinson - They used to have a cigarette brand, Kool.

Mr DEAN - Yes, they did. It was a menthol cigarette, from memory. It is not cool to smoke and that is the message we want to give.

I ask the question of the Government, 'How many inspectors do we currently have policing these issues?' We had one member in Launceston who was an excellent member - a government employee in Ronald McDonald - and I spoke of Ronald a number of times in this Chamber who passed away, unfortunately, in a very tragic situation at a fairly young age. He was very strong in relation to the policing of cigarette smoking and the sale of cigarettes. Whilst it polices itself to some degree, unless you get the right numbers of people in these areas to police it properly there are some areas and some people that need a bit of a jolt to make sure that they do comply with the law and that they are acting as we require them to act.

How many inspectors do we have in Launceston policing the tobacco legislation? I do not know if Ronald was ever replaced but I would certainly like to know who is now performing that task, and how many we have around this State. Without that happening, Madam President, we will not be as successful as we might otherwise be. There is a lot of self-policing, and it is normally very good. But, as I said, there are times when you need to go a bit further.

When it comes to this packaging and display area, I think it was Coles that undertook, off their own bat, to become involved in this program a long time ago with the way they would display cigarettes because they could see the harm they were causing. I think they were covered, with no display at all.

I look forward to the new legislation coming into this Chamber as soon as possible in the new year - the sooner, the better. I could just about tell you what the results are now of the State Government survey being done, without having to wait for those results to come back. It will be very strongly opposed to smoking in malls and transit areas if the return is similar to others around Australia - and I would not think it would be any different here. There will be a strong position taken against smoking in playgrounds where children are, probably 70-80-90 per cent against smoking in arenas and play areas and so on.

When it comes to tobacconists it could be a little different. I do not know what is likely to happen there because I have never really tested the market in relation to that, whether or not we should have them - specialist tobacconists - and what should happen in that area.

Of course I support this legislation, Madam President. Anything that tightens up and restricts and controls the sale of cigarettes is certainly valuable and we need to do it.

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