Laurie Ferguson (Werriwa, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I associate myself with the mover of the World No Tobacco Day motion, the member for Hindmarsh, and also the comments of the previous speakers. I will try not to cover facets of the debate that have been covered earlier.

I turn firstly to the article in the Age on 24 May by Clancy Yeates. He notes that Australia's Future Fund's investments in the cigarette and tobacco fields increased by $78 million, or 50 per cent, to $225 million in recent times. I am disturbed that the manager, Mark Burgess, was unable to reveal on such an important issue whether it was as a result of share price rises or international purchase increases. It is also disturbing to note that $180 million goes into arms companies. The reason is that it is not illegal. I find it extremely unprincipled that our Future Fund would invest so heavily in the tobacco field.

Norway does not seem to have similar problems. It has an advisory committee on ethics for its petroleum fund. I have had the privilege of being there and speaking to officials of that fund. The Ministry of Finance promulgates ethical guidelines. On 19 January, 2010 it made the very crucial decision to disinvest in 17 tobacco companies. This disinvestment of US$2 billion was the largest disinvestment carried out by the petroleum fund. When we get up here and make speeches about the positions we take on these issues, perhaps we as a body and as a nation have to look at these investments by the Future Fund of our own nation.

The other aspect I want to turn to—and the member for La Trobe did go into this area—is the question of the developing world. We hear from these companies over decades how everything is useless; nothing will reduce the issue or improve the problem. It is quite interesting therefore that they divert so much activity to the developing world. We note that according to data only five per cent of the population of this earth, or some 154 million people, benefit from anti-smoking laws. Related to that is the World Health Organisation's observation:

It is projected that tobacco use will cause 8.4 million deaths by 2020, 70% of which will occur in developing countries. Of the 100 million projected tobacco-related deaths over the next 20 years, about half will be of people in the productive ages of 35-69.

What we see is a pattern where, if we restrict their ability to manipulate people, they move on to young children, as we have heard from earlier speakers. They turn their advertising to that market. If they cannot do it in the developed world, they go to markets where there is no policing or controls. I notice the Guardian Weekly of 13 March this year gave a distinct indication in one particular country of the pattern, and that is Indonesia. According to the National Commission for Children's Protection:

… nearly 2% of Indonesian children start smoking at the age of four. The World Health Organisation says the practice has risen 600% in the past 40 years in this nation of 240 million, where, despite increased taxes on tobacco, a standard pack of 20 costs only around—

$1.18—

with many street stalls selling single sticks for as little as—

11c.

It was also noted in that article by Kate Hodal in Jakarta that:

According to the WHO, smoking claims around 425,000 Indonesian lives a year and is responsible for nearly a quarter of all annual deaths.

An article in the same journal notes that this is an industry where:

Revenues from global tobacco sales are estimated to be close to $500bn … generating combined profits for the six largest firms of $35.1bn—more than $1,100 a second.

Much of this profit is ultimately channelled to pension and insurance investors in the UK—British American Tobacco and Imperial are two of the largest companies listed on the London stock market.

It is not only internationally that there is a targeting of particular markets and particular realities. The New South Wales Cancer Council stressed that in Australia smoking is a social justice issue: while 17 per cent is the usage rate of tobacco in the general population, for lone mothers the rate was 46 per cent; for Aboriginals 47 per cent; for the homeless 27 per cent; for those suffering from mental illnesses between 33 and 58 per cent, depending on their issues; and for vulnerable young people 63 per cent. They noted that the poorest smoking households in New South Wales spend 20 per cent of their income on tobacco. They also noted the wish of the people to avoid this. Seventy-five per cent of New South Wales prisoners wish to stop; 50 to 80 per cent, depending on their condition, of those who are in drug treatment facilities also wish to desist. They make the point that the stresses of these people's lifestyles, the lack of resources they have to combat it and the social networks they are part of which favour these kinds of products also— (Time expired)

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