Warren Snowdon (Lingiari, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for External Territories) Share this | Hansard source

It's my privilege to finish my contribution to the debate on the Tobacco Plain Packaging Amendment Bill 2018 this morning, having been interrupted by events of last evening. Last night I was talking about the appalling cuts to Aboriginal smoking programs by the Abbott government in 2014. I note the amendment which has been moved by the shadow minister says:

"whilst not declining to give the bill a second reading, the House:

(1) notes that progress on lowering smoking rates has stalled following the Government's cuts to tobacco control measures; and

(2) calls on the Government to re-invest in lowering smoking rates."

I should say that of course I support that amendment wholeheartedly. What they could do is look at best practice examples of programs which have been very effective in impacting smoking rates amongst some communities.

I want to point particularly to one program which has been developed by the Institute for Urban Indigenous Health in Brisbane, called Deadly Choices, which explores the historical journey of tobacco use, its acceptance and its impact on Aboriginal communities. It's a tobacco education program which is available in schools. It's a health education capacity development program that gives participants an understanding of the long association with tobacco that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have had, which helps them gain insights into the current use and acceptance of tobacco in the community. But Deadly Choices is bigger than that. It's really a health promotion program which spins around the need to address tobacco. The one-term, six-session program for schools is delivered in a flexible manner to suit school and community environments. It talks about the history and impacts of smoking; chemicals and addiction; quit support; health resources; passive smoking; and Deadly Places, Smoke-Free Spaces. It involves a 715 health check and developing links with Aboriginal medical services or health centres. That's a very important thing. We need to understand the relationship between primary health services and prevention and the way in which you can spin off programs like Deadly Choices as a result of attracting people to get a 715 check and give them an opportunity to take action to safeguard their own health.

There was a systematic review in 2016 of these programs, and I want to quote some of the conclusions:

… many of the interventions analysed in this review report high levels of community engagement and ownership. Interventions that led to positive changes were 1) led by Indigenous community members; 2) implemented in partnership with non-Indigenous health workers; 3) offered as mainstream health services. However, the importance of Indigenous led commercial tobacco control interventions is three-fold. First, it demonstrates a growing recognition of the need to address the high rates of smoking in Indigenous communities—

which I explored in my earlier contribution. They continued:

Second, it recognizes that interventions will have greater community relevance if programs are supported and rooted in local community context. Third, it reflects the growing demand, made by Aboriginal communities, for control over health services through the full participation of Aboriginal individuals in decision making and implementation.

Further, consistent with approaches to Indigenous health knowledge translation, this review found a preference for 'within the community' messages. … This was made evident through the frequent use of culturally relevant health promotion materials that were adapted to reflect the communities' unique history and culture as well as the use of Aboriginal project staff and research officers in many of the interventions.

That's what Deadly Choices does. It's built around the expertise and drive of an organisation which is very ably led by its CEO, Mr Adrian Carson. It's got a wonderful board, a skilled board, which not only has Aboriginal people but is a skill based board. I think Bill Glasson, who's a noted eye specialist in Brisbane, is on the board, plus others. This organisation has been able to work around the funding arrangements for the Commonwealth to make sure it has a program which is effective, makes an impact and will reduce and has reduced smoking rates in its community. That's what this is about.

I say to the government: you have an opportunity here to redeem yourself, and the way you redeem yourself is by putting additional resources into programs like Deadly Choices, not only in Queensland but elsewhere across Australia, and other programs which are community owned and community driven.

See this speech in context