Jill Hall (Shortland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Mr Deputy Speaker Georganas, I would like to start my contribution to this debate by associating myself with both you and the previous speaker and commending you for your fine contributions. World No Tobacco Day has a theme this year, and it is 'no tobacco interference'. I think that that is a very appropriate theme to have.

In speaking to this motion, firstly I would just like to put on the record the damage that tobacco smoking causes. It causes cardiovascular disease and cancer, including lung cancer. Smoking is the leading cause of cancer in Australia and accounts for approximately 20 to 30 per cent of all cancers, and that can be both active and passive smoking. Lung cancer is a leading cause of death amongst Australians. Smoking is responsible for 84 per cent of lung cancers in men and 77 per cent in women. The longer a person smokes, the greater their chance of developing cancer. Stopping smoking can greatly reduced smoking-related cancers. Anyone coughing blood or displaying any of the other symptoms should immediately see their doctor, of course.

The benefits of quitting are that in eight hours blood levels of carbon monoxide have dropped dramatically; in five days most nicotine is out of your body; in one week your senses of taste and smell improve; in one month better blood flow is improving your skin; in 12 weeks your lungs regain the ability to clean themselves; in three months your lung function has increased by 30 per cent; in nine months your risk of pregnancy complication is the same as for a nonsmoker; in a year your risk of heart attack has halved; your risk of stroke has dramatically decreased in five years; and you can save $4,000 a year to spend on other things. So there is a great benefit from stopping smoking. It is also important to note hospital admissions. In 2003 there were 15,511 smoking related deaths in Australia—I am sure there are later figures than that, but these are the ones I am working on—and 78 per cent of the total burden of disease and injury in Australia was caused by smoking. Tobacco caused 14.8 per cent of Australian deaths amongst men and 8.4 per cent amongst women, and there were 5,081 smoking deaths attributed to smoking in New South Wales alone. In New South Wales there were 42,356 smoking related hospital admissions.

I would now like to share with the House the fact that the Australian government has been honoured for global leadership in tobacco control. The Australian government has been presented with a global leadership award by three of Australia's leading public health organisations for outstanding national and international action and leadership in tobacco control. This was presented by the AMA, the Australian Council on Smoking and Health, and Action on Smoking and Health Australia. The Minister for Health and Ageing accepted the award.

The award has been given for being a leader in international action on tobacco over the past year in the ongoing battle to stop people smoking and, by smoking, destroying their health. That included recognition for the plain paper packaging legislation, which has been very supported by these organisations. The government has continued to pursue that, despite massive and desperate opposition from global tobacco companies. Therefore, we go back to that theme for World No Tobacco Day: no tobacco industry interference. The government has banned electronic and internet advertising for tobacco and committed $100 million over four years to tackle Indigenous smoking and recently decided to reduce significantly duty-free sales of tobacco. These are all initiatives that will lead to people quitting smoking.

Mr Deputy Speaker, I, like you, was a smoker. I have not smoked for 30 years and I am really proud of that. I started smoking as a young teenager; I thought it was cool. I think that everything that we can do as a government to stop young teenagers from smoking should be done. I congratulate you on bringing this motion to the House, Mr Deputy Speaker. I think it is a very good motion and I am sure that all the members will support it. (Time expired)

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