Nicola Roxon (Gellibrand, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Health and Ageing) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Banks for his question. I am very proud to say that today I introduced into the parliament the world's first legislation for the plain packaging of tobacco products. This legislation means that all tobacco products sold in Australia will, in the future, have no industry logos, no brand imagery, no colours and no promotional text. They will just be in a drab, dark brown pack with health warnings that will cover 75 per cent of the front of the pack and 90 per cent of the back of the pack. Those who manufacture, sell or distribute tobacco products could face fines of over a million dollars if they breach this legislation. I am pleased to say that at last the Leader of the Opposition—although he has been dragged kicking and screa­ming—has indicated that the Liberal Party will support this measure, which I hope will be followed through on. However, I did notice last night in the House that the member for Mitchell put on the record his opposition to these measures. He outed himself as one of the supporters of tobacco in the Liberal Party room. He said that plain packaging was 'an example of ill thought-out proposals put forward by government committees' and that this was 'a ridiculous form of nanny state legislative response to ordinary, everyday problems'.

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