TOBACCO PRODUCTS REGULATION (FURTHER RESTRICTIONS) AMENDMENT BILL

Final Stages

The Legislative Council agreed to the bill with the amendments indicated by the following schedule, to which amendments the Legislative Council desires the concurrence of the House of Assembly:

No. 1. Clause 4, page 4, lines 2 to 18 [clause 4, inserted section 51(1) and (2)]—Delete subsections (1) and (2) and substitute:

(1) The Minister may, by notice in the Gazette, declare that smoking is banned in the public area or areas, and during the period (being a period not exceeding 3 days), specified in the notice.

(2) A notice under subsection (1)—

(a) may be of general application or vary in its application in respect of each public area to which it applies; and

(b) may exempt specified areas, specified circumstances or specified times from the operation of the subsection (4); and

(c) may be conditional or unconditional.

No. 2. Clause 4, page 4, after line 32—Insert:

52—Smoking banned in certain public areas—longer term bans

(1) The Governor may, by regulation, declare that smoking is banned in the public areas specified in the regulations for the purposes of this section.

(2) A person who smokes in a public area declared by the regulations to be a public area in which smoking is banned is guilty of an offence.

Maximum penalty: $200.

Expiation fee: $75.

(3) The regulations under subsection (1)—

(a) may be of general application or vary in their application according to prescribed factors; and

(b) may provide that a matter or thing in respect of which regulations may be made is to be determined according to the discretion of the Minister or other specified person or body; and

(c) may exempt specified areas, specified circumstances or specified times from the operation of subsection (2); and

(d) may be conditional or unconditional.

(4) If smoking is banned in a public area pursuant to this section, signs setting out the effect of this section and the regulation must be erected in such numbers and in positions of such prominence that the signs are likely to be seen by persons within the public area (however, validity of a prosecution is not affected by non-compliance or insufficient compliance with this subsection).

Consideration in committee.

The Hon. J.D. HILL: I move:

That the Legislative Council's amendments be agreed to.

I indicate that the government accepts the two amendments that were moved in the other place, and I will speak briefly to both of them at the one time. These amendments relate to each other, and were moved by the government in the other place following detailed discussions with members of the opposition, who took a slightly different view of how we should manage the capacity of local authorities to be able to declare areas smoke-free. Originally the government intended it to be by gazette; the opposition requested that it be by regulation. We were happy to accept that, with the compromise that for short term periods—up to three days, I think, from memory—it could be done by gazette. This was a good example of the two parties working with each other to reach a resolution that satisfied all of us and allowed us to advance that, so I thank the opposition for its cooperation and I thank all the officers, once again.

This is very important legislation, quite groundbreaking legislation. It will ban smoking in a range of places, particularly public transport shelters. It will also ban smoking in the vicinity of playgrounds, and particularly and importantly—and I think uniquely—it allows local councils and other incorporated bodies or other authorities to seek to ban smoking in areas under their control. So, for example, any of the councils around Adelaide. The City Council, because of the particular by-laws, is allowed to ban smoking in Rundle Mall, but that would be the extent of where it is currently able to exercise that power. This legislation will allow them to do it in a variety of places under their control and, equally, it will allow other authorities to do so, as well. I think, over time, we will see very interesting applications of this power.

It is incredibly important that we do everything we can as a community to reduce the impact of smoking on the health of our community. We know that one in two people who smoke die of smoking-related illnesses and we know that the majority of people who take up smoking do so when they are children; that is, under the age of 18. The whole purpose of the legislation is to put downward pressure on that group taking up smoking, so everything we can do to deglamorise smoking and to reduce the number of times that children see smoking occurring in normal environments has that positive effect.

The smoking industry targets young people. The whole of their advertising, the whole of their promotions, the whole of their approach to tobacco is to encourage the taking up of smoking by kids, and we have to do everything we can to counter that.

I am very pleased to say that the most recent statistics from the local community show that the rate of smoking amongst people between the ages of 15 and 29 has dramatically declined. I think about 13½ per cent of people in that age group now smoke on a daily basis, which is an outstanding result. The number of people in that age group who smoke at all is about 17½ per cent. A few years ago, I think six years ago, it was closer to 30 per cent, so we have seen real declines as a result of the continual pressure.

It is similar to the kind of legislative pressure that governments of both persuasions have taken in relation to driver education and rules about road use. We have seen a reduction, as you would know as a former transport minister, sir, in the number of people dying on our roads because of the changes that we have put in place and the campaigning that we have put in place around driver safety. We need to run similar campaigns in relation to tobacco, and we are beginning to see very good results. With those words, I commend the legislation to the house and once again thank all members who supported it.

Mr HAMILTON-SMITH: I extend and emphasise my support for the legislation. The opposition was happy to consider it from the minister. We were happy to consider the amendments that were ultimately agreed to between the government and the opposition.

We note that some amendments that were proposed by the opposition but not accepted by the government in the first instance reappeared under the auspices of the minister acting in the upper house and largely mirrored, we feel, those suggestions from the opposition. We are thankful that the government took them up. It would have been nice if they had accepted the opposition's amendments, I think, put forward by my honourable friend the member for Morphett, who was then the shadow minister; but, nevertheless, they are up and agreed to.

The opposition has supported this legislation and I think we now have to look to it in the hope that it will not be too officiously implemented. I think that is a danger with these sorts of bills. It is the regulations that then come under the act that must be monitored because, although we have supported the measure, we have a concern about what might be perceived as nanny-state legislation that dictates to people whether they can drink, whether they can gamble, whether they can smoke, whether they can engage in certain social behaviours. We are very, very cautious about any steps by the parliament to get into people's lifestyle and start to tell them what we think they should be doing in regard to lifestyle choices.

Smoking is not illegal. It is a legal activity, although I and the opposition completely agree with the minister that it is a tremendous impost on our health system and it is a very dangerous undertaking for anyone. That is coming from someone who smoked until he was about 22 and then gave it up cold turkey because I realised the damage it was doing to me. I would encourage everyone not to smoke.

So, we will be watching how the government implements this legislation through regulation and, as I said, I hope it is not over-officiously implemented. We understand the intention and, provided that the act is exercised by the government in the way in which it is intended, it should have no unforseen consequences. With that, I echo the opposition's support for the bill and look forward to its swift passage.

Motion carried.