Steve Georganas (Hindmarsh, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Today, 31 May, is World No Tobacco Day. It is a day when we as a nation encourage our friends, our neighbours, our work colleagues and people around us to quit the habit of smoking. I feel very passionate about this subject—this is the third time I have made a similar speech in this chamber—because it is nearly three years to the day since I gave up cigarette smoking. I am very proud to be celebrating those three years of being smoke free.

Like most smokers, I took up smoking when I was a teenager. I suppose it was because of the images that were portrayed in cinemas. It was all around at the time and it encouraged youths, including me and many thousands of people my age in those days, to take up the habit. We did not have the facts on hand about the health consequences of smoking. There were only rumours about the effect that smoking had on our growth. We know all the dangers now of smoking and we all know the impact of smoking on Australia’s health. We know of the many deaths, heart attacks and strokes per year that are caused by smoking.

Tobacco, as we all know, is one of the most deadly drugs on the market. It kills over 19,000 Australians each year—that is one in seven adults—which is more than the combined death toll from road accidents, alcohol, illicit drugs, homicide, HIV, diabetes, and breast and skin cancers. Even though these statistics are startling, they are often not enough to make a regular smoker quit, and I know. Addiction to nicotine is often so severe in a regular smoker that quitting seems an impossible task.

Aside from the obvious effects of smoking such as bad breath, stained teeth, and smelly hair and clothes, smoking also causes cancer, heart disease, stroke, emphysema, asthma and blindness. Tobacco smoking is the biggest single preventible cause of both cancer and heart disease, causing 21 per cent of all cancer deaths and 13 per cent of all new cancer cases. Smoking is our No. 1 drug problem and it is responsible for 80 per cent of all drug related deaths and two-thirds of all drug related costs to the Australian community.

There have been many attempts to curtail advertising, and they have been fairly successful over the years. I have been shocked by some of the marketing tactics. The new market for the tobacco firms is our youth. People like me are either dying through smoking, getting very ill through smoking or giving up, as I have. So their new market is our youth. The tactics being used are absolutely disgusting. Recently one of our superstar actors was paid $50,000 to flash a packet of cigarettes constantly in a blockbuster movie. These are some of the tactics that tobacco companies are using.

I urge everyone who smokes to give up the cigarettes. I call upon my colleagues who do smoke to give up smoking and I call upon all my colleagues to ensure that we do everything we possibly can to prevent our youth from taking up this habit that will only cause harm, death and destruction. (Time expired)