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Legislative Council - Fifty-First Parliament, Second Session (51-2)
2007-10-25 Daily Xml
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TOBACCO ADVERTISING

The Hon. J.M. GAZZOLA (15:11): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for Mental Health and Substance Abuse a question about tobacco advertising displays.

Leave granted.

The Hon. J.M. GAZZOLA: Recently the minister informed the council about anti-smoking measures that will come into effect indoors at pubs, clubs, bingo venues and the Adelaide casino. However, tobacco displays can also be a form of promotion of cigarettes, particularly to our young people. Will the minister inform the council of moves to reduce this type of advertising?

The Hon. G.E. GAGO (Minister for Environment and Conservation, Minister for Mental Health and Substance Abuse, Minister Assisting the Minister for Health) (15:12): I thank the honourable member for his courage in getting to his feet and asking that question in this forum.

Members interjecting:

The Hon. G.E. GAGO: We work on him! I am pleased to remind the council of these important measures that will come into effect on 1 November. Research has demonstrated that retail tobacco displays have become a potent advertising method, particularly for young and experimental smokers—and the honourable member would not qualify in that respect! Restrictions to the size of tobacco displays and accompanying grotesque graphic warnings will apply. Cigarette retailers are being reminded about next Thursday's introduction of point of sale restrictions on the display of tobacco products. These changes coincide with a complete ban on smoking inside hotels.

Retailers have one week left to ensure their point of sale displays comply with these new regulations. Cigarette retailers have been given ample notice of the new laws, and outlets are expected to comply as from 1 November. These laws are not only about preventing smoking but about creating an environment that helps current smokers to quit and those who have quit to remain smoke free. In fact, 23 South Australians die each week from smoking-related illness (or about 1,240 deaths a year in South Australia), the single biggest cause of premature death in our state. We know that those deaths are easily preventable by giving up.

Giving up smoking is no easy feat as those addictions are hard to beat, but nevertheless a lot of help is available. Having been a former smoker myself, I appreciate how difficult these addictions are. Like a lot of former nurses, I know that there is a high incidence of smoking among that occupational group. Giving up smoking was one of the hardest things I have done in my life, so I am very sympathetic towards smokers who face the challenge of giving up.

We will require retailers to display graphic health warning posters wherever cigarettes are displayed; these posters will depict images similar to those displayed on cigarette packages and will be changed annually. The poster for the first year shows the grotesque mouth cancer picture that I am sure many of us have seen already. We will restrict retailers to a maximum of three square metres of tobacco display, which must carry an A3-size graphic health warning poster, or alternatively to a display of one square metre, which must carry an A4-size poster.

Tobacco retailers will be permitted to display only one packet of each product, and no cartons of cigarettes are to be displayed. Specialist tobacconists will be allowed a small amount of additional display area to accommodate cigar ranges, and I am advised that some retailers are, in fact, choosing to put their tobacco displays completely out of sight rather than have to display the very graphic pictures of mouth cancer and so on. Exposure to tobacco product displays can wrongly increase a young person's perception that cigarettes are an acceptable part of every day life, and we know that they definitely are not. Having a graphic health warning next to any display will ensure that young people understand that smoking has serious and often grotesque consequences.

Tobacco retailers were directly notified about the point of sale restrictions in January when they were mailed an information booklet and when an advertisement was placed in The Advertiser. Further correspondence was provided to retailers last month, including the graphic health warning posters. Departmental staff have also met with tobacco wholesale representatives and many large retail outlets to further inform them of the restricted display requirements and to provide further clarification.

The 1 November bans are the next step in the government's tough approach to smoking, including the enforcing of on-the-spot fines for people who smoke in cars with children under the age of 16, enforcing on-the-spot fines to retailers who sell to those under the age of 18, increasing the annual tobacco merchants' licence fee to over $200 per year, and increasing the number of offences that can have an expiation fee applied from 10 to 28.

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