Steve Georganas (Hindmarsh, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you for assisting this morning, Mr Deputy Speaker, so that I can give this speech.

This motion is a very important motion. It is one that I am very proud of because it draws attention to World No Tobacco Day, which will be this Thursday 31 May. I feel very passionate about this particular motion that we are debating here today and also about World No Tobacco Day because I made a very important decision eight years ago on World No Tobacco Day, and that was to give up tobacco and cigarettes—which had plagued me for many, many years.

It is very important that we get this message out that other people can do exactly what I did eight years ago. With all the arguments against it, in the end it was quite easy and I have never felt better. I have been smoke-free ever since. That is not to say that I should not be absolutely vigilant about it, because we know that the addiction of tobacco is there with you forever and a day. It is one of the hardest things to kick and, as we all know, it is extremely addictive—far more addictive than any other drug known to mankind.

Like most smokers, I took up smoking when I was young—a teenager. It was those images that were portrayed at the cinema, which we would all go to; we saw the cowboys and the different movie actors on the big screen from Hollywood that promoted smoking as a healthy lifestyle. We all remember those images as being healthy and sociable. This encouraged young people like me back then to take up the habit, but also we did not have the education that is around today. We did not have the facts and figures. We know today that smoking kills. There is no doubt about it and there are no excuses. Back then we had no facts on hand about the health consequences of smoking. There were only rumours about the effects of smoking and what effects it had on our growth. We now all know that those dangers of smoking are true.

We all know the impact of smoking on Australia's health. We know that there are many deaths and heart attacks, and we heard the member for Shortland speak about strokes and heart attacks in her previous speech. We know about the heart attacks and strokes that are caused through smoking per year. Cigarettes are one of the most deadly drugs on the market. Smoking kills almost 20,000 Australians each year directly, let alone how many more thousands are killed indirectly through smoking. That is one in seven adult deaths, more than the combined death toll from road accidents, alcohol, illicit drugs, murders, HIV, diabetes, and breast and skin cancer. Even though these statistics are startling, they are often not enough to make a regular smoker quit. The addiction to nicotine is often so severe in a regular smoker that quitting seems an impossible task. Aside from the obvious effects of smoking, such as the normal things that come with it—bad breath, stained teeth and smelly hair and clothes—smoking also causes cancer, heart disease, stroke, emphysema, asthma and blindness. It is a shocking statistic that one in two smokers will die as a direct result of their habit of smoking. Tobacco smoking is the biggest single preventable cause of both cancer and heart disease, causing 21 per cent of all cancer deaths and 13 per cent of all new cancer cases.

Smoking is our No. 1 drug problem. It is responsible for 80 per cent of all drug related deaths and two-thirds of all drug related costs to the Australian community. There have been many, many attempts at curtailing advertising, and they have been fairly successful here in Australia—in fact, we are held up as a role model around the world. However, it has been shocking to hear about the market tactics that are being used by tobacco companies to still push their product. They market, as we know, directly to young adults because they know that people like me are giving up at a very fast rate, and to survive in countries like Australia their only new market is young adults. They are the ones that are more likely to become addicted and take up smoking for a period of years. Approximately eight out of 10 new smokers are children or adolescents, and 27 per cent of 15-year-olds smoke. Every day more than 500 schoolchildren smoke their first cigarette—still shocking figures here in Australia.

During the course of a recent committee inquiry into tobacco plain packaging, I was shocked to see some of the products that are available on the market which are quite clearly designed to lure young people into smoking. In one case we were shown a beautiful slim metal case which slides open to reveal a row of pastel-coloured cigarettes, each tipped in gold. They look like works of art. The design and look of the product was like something you would see in a high-end cosmetics store. They looked innocent and inviting. They looked luxurious. They looked elegant. We were told that these products were pitched towards younger women and that they are highly effective because everything down to the slim metal case, designed to fit into the palm of a young woman's hand, subsequently conveys notions of slimness, beauty, elegance and luxury. The tobacco companies know what they are doing. Millions of dollars of research have gone into these packets of cigarettes to lure younger women into smoking. It is frankly quite frightening to see what lengths tobacco companies will go to in exploiting the aspirations and fears of our community at a deep, deep psychological level to sell their deadly products. Another example was a larger, more sturdy case decked out in black and silver which was marketed towards young men keen to project a bit of a tough-guy image.

These examples were presented to us by the Cancer Council, which of course supports many people every year who are staring into a future of chemotherapy and invasive surgery that they will require due to their smoking habits. Of course, the Cancer Council also supports the friends and family members, including children, who are left behind when a loved one's life ends early and needlessly due to their addiction. More than anything else, these examples that the Cancer Council showed us just go to highlight the theme of this year's World No Tobacco Day, which is tobacco industry interference.

It is very apt that this theme comes as the government implements its tobacco plain packaging legislation, which will remove the very last bastion of marketing from these deadly products. Throughout the debate on plain packaging legislation, we have seen the tobacco industry pull out all the stops in an effort to avoid tobacco control measures which will save people's lives. This is incredibly disappointing, because throughout the course of the inquiry that I chaired—and I am pleased there are two members of that committee here in the chamber today, the member for Shortland and the member for Hasluck—we heard time and time again of the numerous peer reviewed research papers which showed that plain packaging would indeed cut smoking rates and save precious lives, including those of our friends, family members and colleagues that still have not given up tobacco.

For that reason, I am particularly proud to support this year's World No Tobacco Day because it also marks a great leap forward for Australia in our approach to health policy. The plain-packaging legislation has placed Australia squarely on the map as a leader in tobacco control. This is something that all of us should be very proud of. The legislation will help quash the ability of tobacco companies to manipulate us into thinking that smoking will help make us the person we want to be. It will hand power and choice back to individuals to consider whether smoking really is in their best interests. We know that once people have the facts, the psychological compulsion will disappear; they know that smoking is not the way to go.

I am very pleased to move this motion. If just one person quits smoking as a result of the attention we have drawn to this issue, I will be extremely proud. I urge my colleagues to tell their neighbours, tell their constituents, tell their friends and tell their families that quitting is possible and it might just save their lives. My love for my family was the reason that I gave up smoking. I want to see my children's children grow up. I want to see grandchildren and I want to enjoy the future with my family. All of these thoughts were paramount when I gave up.

I am very proud to say that two members of my electorate office have also given up smoking, Nigel and Arrietty. They are both in their 40s and have smoked all their adult lives. I do not know if it was the constant nagging by me or the advice that I gave them, but I finally convinced them and they have both been doing very well for a number of months—Nigel for six or seven months and Arrietty for the last three months. I will do all that I can as an employer to support them and ensure that they stay off the dreaded tobacco.

Tobacco is one of the most powerful drugs on earth. It is unlike other drugs as you want to smoke at every moment of the day. If I have one message for anyone who does smoke, it would be to give up on this Thursday, World No Tobacco Day.

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