Senator CHRIS EVANS (12:07 PM) —The Tobacco Advertising Prohibition Amendment Bill 2000 provides for the long overdue amendment of the Tobacco Advertising Prohibition Act 1992 to end the exemption that applies to international sporting events. This exemption was provided in the 1992 act because of the potential for Australia to lose international events in an environment where tobacco advertising was the norm.

Regrettably, over the last five years Australia has slipped from a world leader to become one of the backmarkers in phasing out tobacco promotion. In 1996 Mr Allan Rassaby completed a report into the operation of section 18 and the significance of tobacco sponsorship to international events and the impact these events had on local state economies. The Rassaby report remains the authoritative source on this issue and it looks at all sides of the issue. The Minister for Health and Aged Care has had this report on his desk since it was completed in July 1996 but, regrettably, failed to take the prompt action that was recommended. Mr Rassaby's recommendation was for the exemption in section 18 to be repealed with effect from 2001, which would have given the industry five years notice. Now we find ourselves in 2000 still having to give five years notice. Now the phase-out will not be completed until 2006. Another important report on tobacco at that time was produced by the Senate Community Affairs References Committee, chaired by Senator Herron. He seems to have done most of his best work when in opposition. This report was tabled in December 1995 and included many wide-ranging recommendations, most of which remain unimplemented to this day. On the question of the advertising exemption for tobacco, Senator Herron and his committee recommended that the exemption be phased out by 2000.

The government response to both of these recommendations was not tabled until December 1997—almost two years after the Senate report and 14 months after the Rassaby report was completed. Unfortunately, the Minister for Health and Aged Care made a very weak reply claiming that he had tightened the exemption but that it was necessary to retain it. It was only after another year, in September 1998, and in the run-up to the last election that the Minister for Health and Aged Care took the next step of establishing a phase-out timetable. This is the timetable that is contained in the bill before us and which the European Community adopted in July 1998. It took another two years for this bill to be presented, despite several public promises to introduce it in early 1999 or early 2000. It has now taken a further five months for the bill to make its way through to the Senate, which indicates the low priority being given to this particular piece of legislation. If the minister had accepted the original recommendation, we could have been five years ahead of where we are today and tobacco smoking would not be at the level it is now.

The government has wrongly claimed that the campaign against smoking stalled under Labor in the early 1990s and was only reinvigorated by the round of anti-smoking advertising in 1997. But we need only go to no less a source than Philip Morris to see that these claims are not correct. I refer senators to a graph which was provided by Philip Morris to the Senate Economics Legislation Committee on 4 August. It shows that there was a steady decline in cigarette consumption in the early 1990s. In the four years from 1993 to 1997, there was a drop of four billion cigarettes a year smoked in Australia—a drop of about 13 per cent. In the following three years under the Howard government's policies there was effectively no change in consumption. The push to reduce smoking has stalled.

There was a decline in smoking during 1997, coinciding with the Quit advertisements run during that year. This can be seen in the graph provided, confirming that the advertisements had some effect. But the graph puts the facts into perspective: the decline in smoking in 1997 was the tail end of the campaign commenced and funded by Labor, not the first action by the new coalition government. There has been no action since and, until very recently, the consumption pattern had been very flat. The graph does record a sharp drop in industry sales in recent months. Unfortunately, that does not reflect an actual cut in smoking in Australia. Since the rise in tobacco excise last November, there has been an explosion in illegal chop chop tobacco sales. I am advised that a large part of the recent decline can be accounted for by these illegal sales which the government has now belatedly moved to curb. We need to do more. We need to pass this bill and speed up the way in which tobacco promotion is phased out.

The government originally proposed that the exemption be ended for new events from 2002 and that existing events would lose their tobacco sponsorship by 2006. The opposition rejected the government's argument that more time was required to allow even new events to apply up to the year 2002. You cannot start a phase-out by increasing the number of approved events. I am pleased that the government conceded this point in the House of Representatives debate and that the date has now been brought back to October 2000. There are five existing events that will continue to have exemptions: the Australian Formula One Grand Prix, the Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix, the Australian Ladies Masters Golf, IndyCar Australia and Rally Australia. In recent years there has been a general move worldwide to phase out tobacco advertising. As Australia will not be moving faster than the last countries in Europe, there can be no argument that Australia's ability to attract events will be damaged. Labor's amendment means that, although the existing five events will continue to have their special status until 2006, there will be no new ones.

Senators should shed no tears of concern for the tobacco industry being forced to relinquish their grip on Australia's major motor sports events, nor should we fear for the future of these events. The recent deluge of tobacco papers released onto the Internet in the United States outlines clearly how the major tobacco companies made a concerted effort to get into the sponsorship of Australian sport once tobacco advertising was limited in the mid-1970s. They saw sport as an effective way to advertise their product and to give it a cachet of glamour, excitement and success—and we know that that worked. Studies have shown that brand recall was heightened among children who viewed sponsored events. Clear links could be shown between the preferred brands of children who smoked and the sponsorship of major sports in Australian states. Children, especially those who smoke, are adept at recognising even cryptic tobacco advertisements. It is enough that the Marlboro colours are on the car, helmet and suit of their favourite motor racing hero. We should also not worry about the future sponsorship of these events in the absence of tobacco money; cricket and rugby league continue to thrive in its absence. Ultimately, however, this bill and this issue are about something far more important than how to fund sports events. This is about inappropriately glamorising and promoting a serious health risk. We must tackle the harm caused by tobacco use at every opportunity and undertake and support a wide range of well-targeted initiatives.

I now wish to turn to the government's general record on discouraging the use of tobacco. The government has made much of its concern about tobacco smoking but has done precious little to put its words into action. Since the last injection of funds for the national tobacco campaign in 1995, the level of Commonwealth funding for anti-tobacco programs has been going backwards. The real achievements that should be acknowledged are being made out in the community by underfunded health professionals, the initiatives of state governments and non-government organisations, and the promoters of nicotine replacement therapy. These groups have worked hard to make some impact but their efforts have lost much of their bite as the budget dried up.

Although overall smoking prevalence has declined, the number of cigarettes smoked has plateaued—other than the recent decline due to the chop chop tobacco development. Alarmingly, since 1995 smoking prevalence amongst young women has risen from 19 per cent to 26 per cent. Smoking rates among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are still over 54 per cent. This is an appallingly high rate when compared to the 21.8 per cent average for the community as a whole. It is no doubt a contributing factor to the 20-year gap between life expectancy in the general community and that of Aboriginal people. It is an issue about which something can be done—and it is an issue on which something should have been done already.

Eighteen thousand Australians die every year from smoking. The economic and social costs are in the billions. Our hospitals are full of patients suffering from diseases caused by smoking. At a time when we are investing sizeable sums to reduce other health problems, smoking, which has the largest impact of all, remains the poor relative when it comes to federal funding.

Despite the incontrovertible facts about tobacco's relationship to a plethora of health problems, there is not enough being done. The government has gone strangely quiet about the number one preventable cause of death in Australia. I do not know if this lack of action is linked to the fact that the Liberal Party has a close and well-documented relationship with the tobacco industry. Only recently the Liberal Party conference had a major dinner sponsored by Philip Morris, with much protestation that this was entirely appropriate until such time as tobacco smoking is made illegal. While it is illegal to sell tobacco to minors and it is illegal to promote tobacco in most forms, the government is now moving to end the few remaining exemptions to tobacco sponsorship but continues to feel free to continue to accept its own sponsorship from the industry.

When this bill was debated in the House, the minister was asked to support a ban on sponsorship of political party events by tobacco companies in the same way it will be banned from sporting and cultural events. I understand that the Democrats will be moving an amendment on that, and I will outline our position at that time. The government needs to wake up to the seriousness of this problem. The minister recently presented himself to Chelsea Clinton as a pioneer of the anti-tobacco cause. In fact, I think he is lagging well behind the Australian public on this issue. The states have long since gone past what the Howard government is prepared to support, and the minister's actions have failed to keep up with his rhetoric.

In summary, it is important that Australia sets some meaningful goals to hasten the reduction in tobacco usage in Australia. We have lost a lot of momentum in the last five years, as the increase in smoking amongst young women demonstrates. The opposition is committed to reinvigorating this debate and will bring a new approach and a new set of strategies to achieve real results. This bill represents a long overdue step that the government appears to be taking rather unwillingly. The opposition will support the bill and we will look at the Democrat amendments when we are in the committee stage. Labor look forward to working closely with community groups, including the anti-cancer councils, to speed the decline in tobacco usage.