Andrew Laming (Bowman, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Regional Health Services and Indigenous Health) Share this | Hansard source

What we have here is a juvenile approach to a very serious issue. One in five Aboriginal Australians die of a smoking related illness. These three have presumably been sent down into this great chamber with speaking notes from the Prime Minister's office; you can almost hear the advisers giggling away in the Prime Minister's office, saying, 'Yes, go on, make a political point out of smoking.' What a disgrace! We know how serious this is. There has been bipartisan support about this and all you can make is a juvenile point, direct from your own leader's office.

If you were serious about smoking and the 49 per cent of remote Aboriginal Australians who are desperately trying to kick the habit, you would be more worried about what our Indigenous coordinator is doing, you would be more interested in the investment that is going on in small communities right across this nation to kick smoking and you would take the lead from my previous coalition speaker, who gave a dispassionate, well-informed and completely sober analysis of smoking—which we have not had from the government's side. This is one of these 9.25 pm giggles that is not even worthy of being brought into this chamber. There is no mention of the money from alcohol outlets that the other side of the chamber relies on and there is no mention of the gambling money that festoons itself in the ACT through the Workers Club and the Tradesmen's Club which keeps your entire campaign in the ACT afloat.

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