Ewen Jones (Herbert, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I too rise to support the member for Kingston's motion on Lung Cancer Awareness Month and I do so with the admission that I am an addict. I no longer use, but I still recognise myself as a smoking addict. Nicotine is the greatest drug in the world for those people who like it. I was a reasonably heavy smoker and I took after my father with that. My father was one of those people who could smoke a hundred cigarettes in a day. They say that when you roll over in your sleep at night there is a moment where you wake up. My dad would roll over, get up, smoke two or three cigarettes and go back to bed.

I only smoked between 40 and 50 cigarettes a day, and the reason I gave up was that my then wife and I were going to have a family. She said that if I wanted to keep on smoking I would have to go outside. So it was not the packaging; it was not the messages on the bottom. It was the pure laziness of having to go outside for a smoke that made me give up. Those people who do smoke make fun of absolutely everything. In my day, at the bottom of your packet of cigarettes there were messages that smoking causes lung cancer and heart disease. I tried to make sure that I bought packets of cigarettes that said that smoking damages your fitness or that smoking is harmful if you are pregnant, because those things did not hurt me. When you are a smoker, you will rationalise absolutely everything for it, but it is broader than that.

I recognise the words of the member for Blair that kids today are so much better off than we are. My son is 11 years old. We sit at our dinner table. My daughters, as far as I am aware, have never smoked. My son is 11 years old and has his heart set on playing half-back for the Cowboys. We were talking about smoking and he asked me if I smoked. I said, 'Yes, I smoked.' He said, 'So let me get this right, dad: you knew it was bad for you?' 'Yes.' 'You knew it could give you cancer?' 'Yes.' 'You knew it could give you heart disease?' 'Yes.' 'You knew about all of those things that come off it—blindness and all those things?' 'Yes.' 'And yet you still did it?' 'Yes.' 'Let me go through that again, dad.' He cannot for the life of him figure out why I smoked. Being cool and being a little bit rebellious when you are in primary school or early high school is not enough.

I note the words of the member for Blair and the words of the parliamentary secretary earlier in relation to men's health. I think it is something that we go do through and that we do have to recognise. I have spoken at and been to prostate awareness things where men do not look after themselves. Women are so much better at discussing matters amongst themselves, going to the doctor and getting things tested, because it is part of their lives. For men, be it diabetes, depression, lung cancer or prostate, it does not matter how much sense it makes, there is reluctance to go and get themselves checked, to sit there and have that conversation and that relationship with the doctor. Men will go to the doctor when they are near death. Men will go to the doctor when they are very, very ill and need drugs. We do not go to the doctor to get ourselves checked, and we do not go to the doctor and get our blood pressure checked often enough. We do not go and get our vital signs checked up.

As previous members have mentioned, men were 56 per cent more likely to die of lung cancer than women because we do not keep our relationships with our GPs current. Lung Cancer Awareness Month must push that men develop that relationship with their GP. For mine, I think the message is that we can get out there. I was a smoker because it appealed to me. I got hooked and I loved it and I still do. That is the wonderful thing about cigarettes—you can rationalise anything you want! You can be standing outside a building in 45-degree heat, sucking on a burning stick, sweating profusely whilst everyone is inside drinking cold beer, eating prawns and you are thinking you are the lucky one. That is what smoking can do for you. When you are a smoker, an addict, you may not be able to make your car payment, you may not be able to make your rate payment or your insurance payment, but you can scrounge enough 5c pieces to get a packet of cigarettes. That is the nature of addiction. That is what we have to attack. That is what we have to fix up. I am sure I am joined by you, Deputy Speaker Broadbent, and the member for Wright in cursing this insidious disease.

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