Steve Georganas (Hindmarsh, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to 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.

Ken Wyatt (Hasluck, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to support the motion by the member for Hindmarsh and I concur with his sentiments. I too am fortunate to have four staff who are smoke-free. One quit recently, and all of them make a great contribution to the health of our young people.

I want to compliment the Department of Health and Ageing because they have developed a number of initiatives to encourage Australians to quit smoking. I commend the department and its staff for the work they are doing in conjunction with state and territory governments as well as with non-government organisations. I suspect if we took a reality check across the globe, there would be many parts of the world where this message would not be received or known, but in Australia we have the opportunity to promote it. We all know the adverse impacts of tobacco smoking on an individual. They are published and well known and yet, even with those adverse outcomes, we still have individuals who continue to smoke. We will continue our focus on good health and the fact that you need to be there for your family.

One of the sad things when walking past hospitals is to see people outside with drips in their arms having a couple of cigarettes before they race back into the hospital. They are in a centre that is treating them for health problems, but they are equally contributing to their health problems. It is well known that smoking raises the risk of cardiovascular disease, respiratory disease, cancer of the respiratory, digestive and reproductive organs, and premature births. It still remains one of the leading cause of preventable disease and premature mortality amongst Australians. Smoking is responsible for over seven per cent of the total burden of disease in our country. In 2003, tobacco use caused more than 15,000 deaths—that is, 15,000 deaths that did not need to occur, with 15,000 families affected by the death of someone they loved and were close to. The total quantifiable costs of smoking to the economy, including the costs associated with the loss of life, were estimated to be greater than $31 billion in 2004-05. That is why I complimented the Department of Health and Ageing at the beginning, because their work is absolutely critical to getting that message out there. Again I thank the member for Hindmarsh for giving us the opportunity to speak in this chamber on this important issue.

I found the following statement, obtained from Welcome to World No Tobacco Day 2012, interesting, and I will read it as it appeared on the site:

The brain needs up to 72 hours to rid itself of all nicotine, to resensitize once saturated receptors, and to move beyond peak withdrawal. It also needs time to down-regulate and rid itself of the millions of extra nicotinic receptors nicotine caused it to grow … The subconscious mind needs time to encounter, break and extinguish all the nicotine feeding cues it established. The conscious thinking mind (the prefrontal cortex) needs time to sort through and discard the long list of lies it invented to explain why that next cigarette was so important, to try and make sense of the deep inner "wanting" it didn't understand … Nicotine addiction is a brain "wanting" disease that can be fully arrested but not cured. As permanent as alcoholism, it enslaves the same brain dopamine pathways as illegal drugs, including heroin and meth.

That is a challenge in itself, and that is why nicotine in the quantity it is in in cigarettes induces an individual to want to continue to smoke, and the excuses are a justification to feed a nicotine habit.

I want to focus on the need to reduce smoking rates for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Even though we have made progress, there are substantial issues still yet to be confronted. The third report against the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Performance Framework stated:

The health of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples is improving for a number of measures, although there remain many issues for which there have been no improvements.

The report said:

Fifty-eight per cent of excess deaths are due to chronic diseases (i.e. circulatory disease as well as cancer, diabetes, respiratory disease and kidney disease).

…   …   …

Low birthweight … is twice as common for babies born to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander mothers than other Australian babies. The rate also appears to be increasing. There is a strong relationship between smoking during pregnancy and low birthweight.

…   …   …

In 2008, 47% of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians aged 15 years and over smoked. This was a small but potentially important improvement from 2002, when the rate was estimated to be 51%.

So, whilst we are making gains within broader Australian society, we have a segment of our society in which the smoking rates are still problematic. On a day like today, it is highly likely that 47 per cent will still continue their smoking habits until the programs that have been designed and put in place have an effect that is starting to show.

Around half of Indigenous Australian women smoke during pregnancy, three times the rate of other pregnant women. An estimated 65 per cent of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children aged from zero to 14 live in households with a current daily smoker, compared with 32 per cent of non-Indigenous children. So reducing Indigenous smoking continues to be a priority for Australia and is now being addressed through the Indigenous Tobacco Control Initiative and the National Partnership Agreement on Closing the Gap in Indigenous Health Outcomes.

Why am I focusing on Indigenous Australians? For two reasons. One is the number across this country, and certainly within my electorate, who smoke. I have some 4,000 to 5,000 Indigenous Australians in my electorate, and if I take that percentage then that impacts on constituents within my electorate. Having had the experience of working, with the two members who are in this chamber, on the Standing Committee on Health and Ageing, I can say it is of concern to us, and it is of concern to me.

The importance of the issue is reflected in three key measures of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Performance Framework that are directed to the extent of smoking rates in Indigenous communities. The three measures were designed to look at why the measure was important, what the findings were and what the policy implications are if we do nothing. One of the first ones was 2.18, which was tobacco use. Why was it important? It was important because environmental tobacco smoke has adverse health effects for others who are in close proximity to the smoker, including asthma in children, lower respiratory tract infections, lung cancer and coronary heart disease. That is from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare's report in 2002. Given the adverse impact on health in Indigenous society, adding that other layer of smoking adds another dimension that runs across all key strands that are life-shortening factors for a society of people who have rates that are not conducive to a healthy future. We can go through a range of figures that demonstrate the extent of smoking in every category and every age range, but I hope that a day like today, World No Tobacco Day, highlights and accentuates an awareness—which has to be brought to the fore—of the challenges that people face when they continue to smoke. Certainly we understand the addictions that nicotine causes. The measures that this parliament has taken in respect of plain packaging of cigarettes are a critical step in making an unhealthy habit unattractive.

I would hope that in 10 years time, when we celebrate a day like today again, we see a further reduction not only in Australian society and in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander society but also in all those groups that are in circumstances where smoking becomes an aid to relief or an aid to a problem. An area that we have not really explored that we have to continue to do some work around is within the prisons. Again, the high smoking rates within the prisons around this country are not conducive to the health of those who are incarcerated. Within the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community, with the high incarceration rates, you are certainly exposing those who are incarcerated to greater use of cigarettes, smoking and tobacco products.

I would hope that your motion, Member for Hindmarsh—Mr Deputy Speaker Georganas—will certainly heighten people's awareness today. I support the importance of World No Tobacco Day because it is probably one of the key steps to bringing about an awareness of the need to reduce the prevalence rates of smoking within any society.

Jill Hall (Shortland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to 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)

John Alexander (Bennelong, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I, too, am pleased to join you, Mr Deputy Speaker and member for Hindmarsh, in speaking about this motion and the World No Tobacco Day on 31 May.

It is extraordinary to see the changes of attitude over the past 30, 40 or 50 years with regard to cigarette smoking. At my doctor's surgery there is actually an ad that is still there on the wall recommending a certain brand of cigarette, saying that more doctors smoke this cigarette brand and support it because of its great health benefits in aiding relaxation. Cigarettes were a form of payment for our armed forces. They were given to soldiers and seen as a luxury—something that you could have when going into battle.

In her book talking about her life with Lew, who was one of our great tennis players, Jennie Hoed talked about her great contribution to helping him learn to relax by teaching him the art of smoking. Poncho Gonzales was also a smoker; and possibly one of the greatest players of all time, Bill Tilden, was a smoker. None of those people lived beyond 61 years of age. Hollywood was also engaged in the subliminal message that it was cool to smoke. The greatest actors and singers smoked. Frank Sinatra, even after he had stopped smoking, continued to have a cigarette when doing his rendition of One for My Babyagain, that message came through. It continues today with Hollywood.

I will talk a little bit about the level of addiction. We all have personal stories. We all know, if we have smoked, how difficult it is to stop. I had a great friend in Atlanta, Georgia. He had grown up on a farm in Kansas. As a very young boy, if you were working like a man, you could smoke like a man, so he started smoking at the age of about 12. When he was in his 50s he was diagnosed with lung cancer. He had part of a lung removed. When he was going through his recovery period, this tough Southern man, he said, 'John, this is a son of a—I ain't never gonna have a cigarette again.' He recovered.

I went away, as I did, travelling. I came back a couple of weeks later. His wife was terribly distressed because, in the middle of the night, she would look into the backyard and see that her husband was sneaking cigarettes. Even more distressingly, a couple of months later, Mary-Sue, who had stopped smoking some 20 years previously, commenced this awful habit again. Last time I played golf with Gene, he had a Red Cross flag on his golf buggy. He was suffering from emphysema. He was still smoking. We will play golf no more.

We know now the damage that cigarette smoking does health-wise. We know that it costs a great deal in social costs—$31.5 billion in 2004-05. It is the single most preventable cause of disease. It is interesting that something like 7.8 per cent of our health costs are attributable to smoking and that 14.8 per cent of deaths in men and 8.4 per cent of deaths in women can be attributed to smoking. One in two people who smoke will die of smoking. Therefore, by extension, if you can talk two people into not smoking you have saved one life.

Hollywood has also made its contribution to trying to prevent people from smoking. In the last days of his life, Yul Brynner, a well-known smoker, made an advertisement, a health warning, in which he simply said, 'Whatever you do, don't smoke.'

Laura Smyth (La Trobe, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am very pleased to participate in this debate. I commend, in his absence, the member for Hindmarsh on bringing this motion before the chamber today to commemorate the efforts that have gone into World No Tobacco Day since its establishment in 1987 by the World Health Organisation. We here are all very much aware of the negative consequences of tobacco smoking both for our own population and for populations around the world. But I think, given that this is a particular day that has been instigated by the WHO, it is important to reflect on some of its findings in relation to the prevalence of tobacco use around the globe.

I would like to refer to a study by the WHO that is part of a publication titled Systematic review of the link between tobacco and poverty. It caught my attention. Inherently one knows that tobacco use is very prevalent in some of the most impoverished countries around the world, but it is really worth reading parts of this report to get an accurate reflection of just how significant it is for population health in countries which are already suffering significant public health concerns.

The report finds that 82 per cent of the world's smokers live in low- and middle-income level countries. That is quite an extraordinary figure. But it is all the more troubling when one looks at a couple of the countries that the report considers—for instance, Bangladesh and Vietnam. It finds that in Bangladesh the poorest households, with household income of less than $24 a month, were twice as likely to smoke as the wealthiest households. The report finds:

Average male cigarette smokers spent more than twice as much on cigarettes as per capita expenditure on clothing, housing, health and education combined. A typical poor smoker could easily add over 500 calories to the diet of one or two children using his or her daily tobacco expenditure, and therefore the lives of 350 children could be saved daily.

That is an extraordinary finding from the WHO. It is timely to remember those kinds of statistics in this debate before the House today about World No Tobacco Day.

The other country that the WHO made mention of in the report that I have discussed was Vietnam, where the report found:

Low income level households' tobacco spending was equal to 1.5 times their educational spending and was similar to health care spending.

Once again, these are extraordinary figures worth considering in the context of the efforts being made by this parliament and state and territory parliaments right around the country to combat the effects of tobacco smoking and to combat tobacco smoking being taken up, particularly by some of our youngest members of society.

We know for instance that in Australia the Cancer Council has estimated that smoking claims the lives of around 15,500 Australians each year and costs our economy around $31½ billion. I have often reflected on that in the context of my own electorate of La Trobe and the number of people who are represented within it. I estimate that it would equate to about 16 per cent of the electors in my seat being affected by tobacco if it were confined to the electorate of La Trobe. That is an extraordinary number of people—people with families, people with dependants—whose lives are detrimentally affected by the use of tobacco right around our country.

It is important also to reflect in the debate on this motion about World No Tobacco Day on the very significant reforms that have been put in place by this government in conjunction with state and territory colleagues around the country. We know that the targets set under the COAG National Healthcare Agreement of reducing smoking rates by 10 per cent by 2018 and halving the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander smoking rate by that time require significant efforts by us all. It is for that reason that this government has introduced a requirement that cigarettes be sold in plain packaging and it is steadfast in pursuing that reform. It is restricting internet advertising of tobacco products and it has committed record funding to targeted antismoking campaigns aimed at cutting smoking in high-risk and disadvantaged groups.

We have the opportunity in this country to make significant inroads to reduce the number of people taking up smoking and the number of people currently smoking. It is important that we reflect on worldwide efforts through this resolution and by other means.

Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The effects of a lifetime of smoking have great significance to me. Whilst I have never so much as put a lit cigarette to my lips, my father, Lance, was a lifetime smoker and on the first day of spring in 2008 passed away from lung cancer. Just before he died he pleaded with my children to never, ever smoke. I sincerely hope they heed his heartfelt and sage advice. It is a message they heard at primary school through the excellent Life Education Australia Healthy Harold interactive and mobile campaign. It is a message impressed upon them by my wife, Catherine, and I. But it was a message graphically and sadly brought home to them with the death of their beloved grandfather.

Tobacco smoking is the largest preventable cause of disease and premature death in Australia. About 15,500 Australians die from smoking related illnesses each year. Despite the effective campaigns against smoking which highlight the cost to your health and the financial burden and emotional strain on your family, there are still about 2.8 million Australians smoking daily. That is more people than the population of Brisbane. A particular concern is the almost 60,000 teenagers aged between 15 and 17 who are regular smokers. Even more alarmingly, five per cent are 12- to 15-year-olds.

The coalition acted decisively to address the prevalence of smoking whilst in government. Tony Abbott, whilst Minister for Health and Ageing, introduced the graphic health warnings on cigarette packs, in addition to other antismoking initiatives. The coalition continued to support sensible measures which actively discouraged smoking and has recently supported legislation to tighten electronic advertising restrictions and the government's plain-packaging legislation.

The coalition government presided over the biggest ever fall in smoking rates, with the prevalence of smoking falling, from 20 per cent to 16.6 per cent between 2001 and 2007, in Australians aged over 14. They were amongst the lowest rates of smoking in the world. I note and acknowledge that the government is also making every effort to reduce tobacco use.

This motion has, as it should, bipartisan support because the effects of smoking on people's health and our nation's medical resources are severe. We believe that there should be a national target to reduce the daily rate of smoking to less than 10 per cent.

The Technical and Further Education New South Wales Riverina Institute, in my electorate of the Riverina, became a smoke-free workplace on 10 April this year. This means that there is no smoking within the nominal boundary of any of the campuses. This was done to align with community expectations in relation to smoking zones. I commend the institute for the measure it has put in place to assist staff and students in accessing support with quitting if this measure inspires them to do so.

I also commend the campaigns running on television and featured in print, which are already addressing the issue of smoking in Australia. However, there needs to be a bigger focus on education and engagement in the push to reduce the use of tobacco. We should be educating people on the harmful effects of their decisions and the benefits to their lives if they do quit, rather than just telling people what they should and should not be doing. I believe that there needs to be a particular focus on young people. Young people today are switched on. They know that smoking is not good for them. In fact, they know that smoking kills people. I have two teenage sons. Most of the time they think they are invincible, but I also know they do not see smoking as cool or as something they would choose to do. Yet, for some reason, there are still so many young people choosing to light up. I think it is imperative that we get to the bottom of why they still choose to do so.

The health benefits of quitting smoking are astounding and the human body has the ability to repair itself from the day a person stops smoking. Within eight hours of quitting smoking, the excess carbon monoxide in an individual's bloodstream is gone. Within five days the nicotine has left the body and, in three months, lung function begins to improve. Research also shows that, if a person quits smoking at age 50, they halve their risk of a smoking related death. If they quit at age 30, they almost completely avoid all excess risk of a smoking related death.

No matter how much education or support is made available, we must accept that some people will continue to smoke. Many smokers find it a way to engage socially and, for some, the thought of giving up is difficult, let alone the actual attempt to quit. It is important that we continue to have measures in place to support people if they do wish to quit.

World No Tobacco Day is marked around the world annually on 31 May. It is meant to encourage a 24-hour abstinence from all forms of tobacco consumption across the globe. The day is further intended to draw worldwide attention to the widespread prevalence of tobacco use and to negative health effects, which currently lead to 5.4 million deaths globally annually.

The member states of the World Health Organization created World No Tobacco Day in 1987. It is a good initiative and so is this private member's motion, moved by the member for Hindmarsh, and I commend him on it.

Laurie Ferguson (Werriwa, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to 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)

Andrew Southcott (Boothby, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Primary Healthcare) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to welcome World No Tobacco Day this coming Thursday and to reaffirm the coalition's commitment to reducing the incidence of smoking in Australia. For a long time it has been a bipartisan commitment to reduce the rates of smoking in Australia. The Preventative Health Taskforce believes that we can see a smoking rate in Australia below 10 per cent, and I believe that is a very worthy goal. Australia has one of the lowest rates of smoking in the OECD but, despite this, there is no cause for complacency. There is always much more that can be done. We know that there are still wide variations in the incidence of smoking in different groups within society. Smoking rates remain high in our Indigenous population. They remain high in lower socioeconomic groups, higher in the lower educated and higher in those who have a mental health problem. The government's own Preventative Health Taskforce mapped out an approach which focused on looking at these groups which have much higher smoking rates. These are areas we need to focus on. Smoking remains the largest preventable cause of death and disease in Australia. The cost to the community of smoking was $31.5 billion in 2004-05 and is no doubt much higher today. The coalition has always had a strong track record when it comes to tobacco control and will continue to do so. The coalition presided over the biggest decline in smoking rates whilst in government. Under the coalition government the prevalence of smoking for Australians over the age of 14 declined from 21.8 per cent in 1998 to 16.6 per cent by 2007. Now, this is amongst the lowest rates of smoking in the world. Only the United States and Sweden have comparably lower smoking rates.

An important point I want to emphasise is that the decline in smoking rates in Australia, which was a fall of 40 per cent for men and 44 per cent for women between 1989 and 2007, was among the biggest rates in the OECD. The fall in smoking rates amongst women was the largest in the OECD. This is not all one-way traffic and there is not an inevitability to this. If you look at the same time period, in Europe we have seen increases in the female smoking rate in countries like France and Germany and massive increases of the order of 44 per cent in Greece. You only get results with concerted activity from local, state and federal governments.

As I said before, the Liberal Party has a proud history in the area of tobacco control. It was Robert Menzies who first introduced a voluntary tobacco advertising code for television in 1966. The Fraser government, in 1976, first implemented a ban on the advertising of tobacco products on TV and radio. Dr Michael Wooldridge, a previous health minister, in June 1997, announced what at the time was the biggest ever national advertising campaign against smoking with a federal government spend of $7 million over two years. It was the Howard government and Tony Abbott as health minister who introduced the graphic health warnings on tobacco products in 2006. It was the coalition that first proposed an increase in the tobacco excise in 2009, a measure that was later adopted by the government.

I again reiterate that for tobacco control to be successful it needs to be part of a comprehensive tobacco control strategy that draws on a wide range of measures. For example, advertising of any tobacco product is now completely banned. Most states now require all tobacco products to be covered at the point of sale, with the remaining states in the process of implementing this measure. I believe that the increased size of the graphic health warnings on tobacco packaging to be introduced in December this year will have a significant impact on reducing the rates of smoking in Australia as well as increasing the rotation and refreshing the messages. The coalition supported the plain packaging legislation through the House last year. There is no silver bullet when it comes to reducing the rates of smoking but we need to continue to look at new ways to ensure that we get our smoking rates in Australia below 10 per cent.

Shayne Neumann (Blair, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Smoking is neither cool nor hip; smoking is neither attractive nor sexy. Smoking is costly to health and harmful to health. Karl Marx was wrong when he said that religion was the opiate of the masses. Tobacco is in fact the opiate of the masses, and lower socioeconomic areas of this country are areas that are so afflicted by high rates of smoking.

This federal Labor government are committed to reaching the COAG national healthcare agreement by reducing the smoking rate in this country to 10 per cent of the population by 2018 and by halving the Indigenous smoking rate. We have taken a lot of steps since we have been in power, including the 25 per cent excise increase, which we announced in April 2010. There has been a record amount of investment in antismoking social marketing campaigns using various forms of media and, of course, there was the legislation to restrict advertising of tobacco products on the internet. We also introduced plain packaging legislation which was passed. Plain packaging measures reduced the glamour and the sexiness of this product. It was not that long ago that we saw the likes of Bogie, Gable and others in black-and-white movies smoking and looking cool. That was all about the tobacco lobby using their efforts to glamorise smoking, and so plain packaging is an important measure that this government has undertaken.

The legislation, which was passed by the parliament unanimously after those opposite finally agreed to do so, said that this country really would send a message to the world that we are undertaking the toughest tobacco-advertising laws and the toughest laws in respect of this issue in the world. Australia is the first signatory and the first country in the world to commit itself to implementing the recommendations on plain packaging. It is a travesty and a tragedy that the tobacco companies, which have lobbied so hard for so long to keep people afflicted by this terrible scourge, have taken the case to the High Court. We are determined to defend our position. We believe it is good public policy and that there are good public health grounds for our legislation. We believe we are on firm constitutional and legal grounds accordingly.

Why is this so important? It is so important because about three million Australians are part of the 16.6 per cent of the population that smokes and, as other speakers have said, 15,500 Australians die of it every year. On average, people who smoke lose about 10 years of life expectancy compared to nonsmokers. And second-hand smoking is a serious health hazard. It contains more than 250 toxic substances, including 43 known carcinogens. The social costs to our country, including health costs of $31.5 billion, have increased since 1998-99. That represents 56.2 per cent of the costs of all drug abuse, including alcohol as a drug. So smoking is a problem.

Tobacco companies cannot be trusted with the facts. For years and years Philip Morris and other tobacco companies hid the harm of smoking. Only in 2010 did the British American Tobacco website belatedly acknowledge the worldwide health problems. But for year after year we saw pictures of tobacco executives denying this and engaging in faulty research, claiming hand on heart that there was no impact and no addictive nature to tobacco. We know this is a terrible thing. I am very pleased that the Labor Party, of which I am a proud member, have for years said that we will not take donations from tobacco companies. Those opposite should also adopt a similar process and a similarly principled position. The coalition parties have accepted a combined $3 million in donations from big tobacco and more than $1.7 million of those were accepted after 2004, when Labor stopped accepting these poisonous donations. They need to kick the habit.

It is important that they set an example and that we all set an example. It is estimated, for example, that the impact of this scourge is that the death toll from the global epidemic of tobacco use could rise to eight million by 2030. Having killed 100 million people during the 20th century, tobacco use could kill one billion during the 21st century. That is why we need to take steps. I commend the member for Hindmarsh for his motion and suggest that those opposite should adopt our policy of not accepting donations. (Time expired)

Luke Simpkins (Cowan, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It certainly was not my intention to approach this with any form of political advantage or spin, but given the comments of the member for Blair I would also remind the House that when we were being lectured to with great sanctimony by the previous Minister for Health and Ageing she did so knowing full well that she had accepted the hospitality of a tobacco company at the Australian Open tennis.

But I will go back to the areas of consistency. I would say that Australia has come a long way in the last 30 years with regard to reductions in the use of tobacco. There was a time when our TVs and radio stations were littered with the advertising of tobacco products. There was a time where even our sporting venues, as covered on TV, were also subject to the terrible influence of tobacco advertising. There has been a lot of progress in recent times. As has previously been mentioned, back in 1976 it was the Fraser government that implemented a ban on the advertising of tobacco products on TV and radio, and that was a step forward. There have been a number of other initiatives, which others have spoken about. One of the classic ones was in 2006, when the now Leader of the Opposition and former health minister, Tony Abbott, introduced the graphic health warnings on tobacco products. So there have been a lot of good things done. Again, we all applaud and look forward to the plain paper packaging of cigarettes being finally implemented, hopefully by the end of this year. I think that is something like the time frame that we are hoping for now. So there has been a lot done, and we certainly support that. It has always been done in a bipartisan manner. We all know that no good can come of this terrible use of tobacco.

I was walking around the Hillarys marina in the northern suburbs of Perth on a couple of occasions over the weekend, and I noted at the time that someone was smoking in front of me as we were walking along. This is an area where there are literally a couple of thousand people in the restaurants, on the little beach there or at the other entertainment facilities at Hillarys. The smell of the cigarette being smoked by that one person seemed so odd and so foreign to me, and I think that really does say something about the way this country has changed: smoking is not cool. Smoking is just a very marginalised activity these days with the majority of the country. As we know, with smoking rates down, I believe, under 17 per cent now, it seems quite a rare event.

What concerns me, though, is the way that the higher smoking rates in the lower socioeconomic strata of our society remain a problem—not as much of a problem as they used to be, but this is the big challenge that we obviously need to deal with now. The people that are least able to afford the high cost of cigarettes and the health costs of cigarettes are the ones that continue to smoke. When I am in the electorate of Cowan, out the front of the shopping centre where my office is located, there are very few people who smoke—a couple of people out the front at the most throughout the day—and that is a pretty good thing. But I do note that when I am over at the Summerfield Shopping Centre, not far from Girrawheen Senior High School, the number of young people that are smoking before school in the morning is quite disturbing: 10 to 15 is a fairly normal number over there. Again, this is an area of lower socioeconomic standing—an area where young people should be concentrating on better use of their money and better use of their long-term health than the smoking of cigarettes. So the reality is that, through efforts like World No Tobacco Day, we are continuing to focus—and we must continue to focus, particularly in this country—on the challenges for people of lower socioeconomic standing and lower education, because these are the people that need to get these messages most of all.

Debate adjourned.