Shayne Neumann (Blair, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(1) recognises that:

(a) tobacco is still the single most preventable cause of death and disease in Australia;

(b) there was over 19,000 tobacco related deaths in 2012 in Australia; and

(c) the social cost of smoking is as high as $31 billion a year in Australia;

(2) notes that mandatory plain packaging of tobacco took effect in Australia on 1 December 2012; and

(3) calls on all Members, Senators, candidates and political parties to stop accepting donations from tobacco companies.

In a cruel twist of irony, the Marlboro Man died of lung cancer. Actually, it has been reported that three of the actors who appeared in one of the most successful advertising campaigns of all time have died from cancer. One of those actors was Wayne McLaren. He contracted lung cancer in the early 1990s. He had been a smoker for 25 years and died at the age of 51 in 1992. The Philip Morris company initially tried to deny that McLaren had appeared in the ads but later admitted he had. McLaren spent his last few years testifying in favour of antismoking legislation and trying to convince Philip Morris to limit tobacco advertising. It is said that some of his last words were: 'Take care of the children. Tobacco will kill you and I'm living proof of it.'

Tobacco smoking is the largest preventable cause of disease and death in this nation. Lung cancer is the leading cancer related cause of death, and tobacco smoking is by far the leading cause of lung cancer. Each year, over 560 people die from lung cancer in Brisbane alone, in my home state of Queensland. The incidence of lung cancer in Queensland women has increased 2.3 per cent, while the incidence in men has dropped by 1.6 per cent, according to Cancer Council Queensland. Smoking harms men and women. Women who smoke tobacco are more likely to develop cervical cancer and have a higher risk of having stillborn and low-birth-weight babies. They risk reduced fertility and complications during pregnancy and childbirth. It is disturbing that 32,000 Queensland schoolchildren aged 12 to 17 are smoking weekly. There is significant research that links tobacco smoking with social disadvantage in Australia. Quit Victoria reports that there are now over 19,000 tobacco related deaths each year.

It is imperative that we do all that we can to reduce the incidence of tobacco smoking. Australia is considered a mature market, meaning that tobacco use is in decline. South-East Asia is now big tobacco's largest market, with six million new smokers recruited in 2009 and another 30 million expected to be added by 2014. The World Health Organization calculates that, of the six million people who will die from tobacco use each year, 80 per cent will be in the developing world. Big Tobacco is determined to get young people in developing countries hooked, and their exploitation is a tragedy.

This federal Labor government is renowned through the world for its stance against Big Tobacco. I commend the former Attorney-General and Minister for Health and Ageing, the member for Gellibrand, for her courage in taking on and tackling tobacco smoking. Thanks to legislation passed in the House, Australia now has the toughest and most comprehensive antismoking measures in the world. Plain packaging laws have come into effect, and there are many other things that we have done, including listing nicotine patches on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme to reduce the price of those patches, producing rounds of antismoking ads and the like. Sadly, still 15 per cent of Australians are daily smokers—compared with about 50 per cent after the Second World War. The social cost, according to the Cancer Council, is $31 billion. Locally, I congratulate the Ipswich City Council for its stance against smoking, banning it from pedestrian malls such as the Nicholas Street Mall and D'Arcy Doyle Place in the CBD.

All of this is why the Labor Party refuses to accept donations from tobacco companies, and has for years. The Liberal and National parties have long been friends of the tobacco industry. In the 2011 financial year, the coalition accepted almost $263,000 from Big Tobacco—Philip Morris and British American Tobacco. Since 2004, Big Tobacco has donated almost $2 million to the Liberal and National parties. On top of that, in the 2011 financial year Imperial Tobacco and Philip Morris invested $4.74 million in political advertising against the federal Labor government's plain packaging of tobacco products initiative.

The former Howard government health minister and current Leader of the Opposition infamously said on the ABC's AM program in 2009:

… I personally would not get hung up on something, in my view, as trivial as smoking while the kids are in the car.

And former Liberal senator Nick Minchin infamously said on Q&A in 2010 that smokers die early and actually save us money.   How Orwellian. The influence of Big Tobacco is all too pervasive, and there is a list of former Liberal Party identities, like Graeme Morris, Tony Barry, Nick Greiner and Chris Argent, all working for Big Tobacco. It is time for all of us—parties, individuals and MPs—to cut ties to Big Tobacco. It is time to say no to tobacco donations. It is time for the Leader of the Opposition, Mr Abbott, to kick the habit and say no to tobacco donations.

See this speech in context