Andrew Leigh (Fenner, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That all words after 'That' be omitted with a view to substituting the following words:

'whilst not declining to give the bill a second reading, the House condemns the government for failing to implement comprehensive budget measures that are fair and sustainable for Australia.'

Cigarettes are the only legal product which, if consumed as directed, will kill half of their users. They are extremely addictive. Ask smokers if they plan to quit and 92 per cent will say yes. Yet Australia has managed over time to significantly decrease the share of people who smoke. Rates since 1980 have approximately halved, with smoking rates now around 18 per cent for men and 14 per cent for women.

How did we do it? Part of the answer was information. People are more likely today to know that cigarettes cause cancer, and they are more likely to understand the risks of smoking while pregnant and the risks of smoking around children. We have also made available cheaper nicotine patches. Since 2011 patches that previously cost $4 a day have now been available for $1 a day for anyone with a doctor's prescription.

One of the things, too, that has changed smoking rates in Australia is the change in price. Over the past generation the cost of cigarettes after inflation has increased from about 40c a stick to about 70c a stick. Whose behaviour is most changed by that? Well, young people are particularly price responsive. So we have seen a rapid drop in the share of young people taking up smoking. The old days of a bunch of boys getting together behind the toilet block to light up are, thankfully, rarer than they once were. Economists estimate the elasticity is about minus 0.5, meaning that if you increase prices by 10 per cent you will decrease smoking rates by five per cent. Plain packaging also played an important part—a measure which I am proud to say was spearheaded by the Gillard government and ultimately supported by the then coalition opposition.

These changes will have an effect, predominantly, on certain groups in society. We have to recognise that any changes in price affect just smokers, and because smoking rates are higher among disadvantaged groups the effect of price changes will be higher too.

But that means that increasing tobacco excise is a progressive health measure. The smoking rate among people living in disadvantaged areas is 24 per cent, among Indigenous Australians is 47 per cent and among the unemployed it is 38 per cent. And these groups consume more cigarettes than the average smoker. So, as we make changes to tobacco excise, the people whose behaviour is most changed are disadvantaged Australians.

This was brought home to me by one of the most poignant emails I have ever received from a constituent, which read as follows:

My great-grandfather, grandfather, father and one of my uncles all died from smoking-related conditions. Each of the latter three died 20-30 years before the life expectancy for their generation. My father's addiction contributed to two decades of poor health prior to his premature death, resulting in frequent periods where he was unable to work.

My siblings and I grew up in poverty, the effects of which are still evident, and the taxpayer bore the cost of his many hospitalisations as well as the cumulative years of income support our family depended on in lieu of employment. I say this so that you will understand my absence of sympathy for the "principle argument", that tobacco companies have a right to make a profit from pushing legal drugs.

I thought of this constituent when Labor announced that we would increase tobacco excise, because it is people like this constituent and her family who will benefit most.

The beneficiaries will also be those who are around smokers—the one in six babies born to mothers who smoke while pregnant and the children who inhale passive smoke. Making sure that we reduce smoking rates in Australia has benefits that flow out to the broader community.

This bill will be supported by Labor—of course it will, because it was Labor policy to begin with. In November 2015, the shadow Treasurer, Chris Bowen, and the shadow health minister, Catherine King, announced that Labor would, if elected, deliver four 12.5 per cent excise rate increases in government, commencing on 1 July 2017.

In May 2016, in this year's budget, Treasurer Morrison announced exactly the same policy—copying Labor's policy. But while students at school are sometimes aggrieved when their classmates copy their work, we on the Labor side are delighted. We are delighted that the government is copying this area of Labor policy because it is excellent policy. It is a gold-medal-winning, double lay-up, full-on backflip, and we are very pleased to see it.

Why do I say it is a backflip? Well, I remember the assessments of Labor's policy at the time, with the health minister, Susan Ley, describing Labor's policy as:

… a grab for money, it's a political statement and I don't like it.

That was 29 November 2015. The then Assistant Treasurer, Kelly O'Dwyer, described it as:

… another tax take that Labor has proposed.

That was on 9 November 2015.

Treasurer Morrison's assessment of Labor's tax policies were that they showed the opposition as 'fringe dwellers'—that was on 24 November 2015. And the member for Warringah, going back to one of his emptier slogans, described changes to tobacco excise as, 'a workers tax'.

But this change will be a progressive health measure. According to the latest National Drug Strategy household survey, daily smoking is continuing to decline and, as shadow health minister Catherine King has noted, Labor's plain-packaging laws take a portion of the credit for that change.

And so we are delighted on this side of the House that the government has again followed Labor in an antismoking measure. I say 'again', because it took the Liberals nine years after Labor before they ceased accepting tobacco donations. It took the coalition some months before they decided to back plain packaging. And in this instance it took the coalition a full six months to back in our changes to excise on tobacco. But they got there, to the right place, in the end and we are pleased to see that.

I will speak in other debates later about the range of issues on which the government has made a mess of consultation and has engaged in a series of backflips. But for now let me commend the government for finally reaching the right policy. This is a policy which will increase the cost of cigarettes and decrease the smoking rate. There will be lives saved as a result of this policy. We currently lose around 15,000 Australians every year to smoking, and this policy will reduce the number of people who die from smoking—not just smokers themselves but the children who inhale passive smoke and the babies born to mothers who smoke. There will be fewer young kids who take up smoking and Australia will be healthier as a result.

It is Labor policy, and I commend the bill to the House.

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