Lyn Allison (Victoria, Australian Democrats) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate—

(a)

notes:

(i)

the resolution of the Ministerial Council of Police and Emergency Management on 17 November 2006 to request that the Treasurer (Mr Costello) introduce a compulsory consumer product safety standard under the Trade Practices Act 1974 requiring that all cigarettes manufactured in, or imported into, Australia must meet an identified performance standard based on that adopted in the United States of America and Canada, that no more than 25 per cent of cigarettes tested in accordance with the Australian Standard will exhibit a full length burn,

(ii)

that at least six Australians every year lose their lives because of fires caused by cigarettes,

(iii)

that a report provided to the Department of Health and Ageing in 2004 estimated that at least 7 per cent of bushfires are caused by discarded cigarettes,

(iv)

that Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation expert, Mr Stephen Moreton, in evidence given to the Employment, Workplace Relations and Education Committee on 1 November 2006, confirmed that fire conditions would be as bad or worse over the next 6 months than in 1983,

(v)

that research by Professor Pitman and colleagues from Macquarie University has estimated that the bushfire risk would increase by 25 per cent by 2050 due to climate change and could rise as high as 40 to 100 per cent in some areas, and

(vi)

that low fire risk cigarettes, which have a lower propensity to burn when left unattended, are a practical and effective way to reduce fires from cigarettes; and

(b)

calls on the Government to work with the New South Wales Government to fast track the regulatory impact statement required under the Council of Australian Governments ‘Principles and Guidelines for National Standard Setting and Regulatory Action by Ministerial Councils and Standard-Setting Bodies’, so that the mandatory standard for low fire risk cigarettes can be introduced as a matter of urgency.

Question put.