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

Today is 31 May and it is World No Tobacco Day. It is a day when we as a nation encourage all our friends, neighbours, work colleagues and people around us to quit the habit of smoking. I feel very passionate about this subject because I used to smoke a packet and a half a day and today it is exactly six years since I quit. I am very proud to be celebrating those six years of being smoke-free. The member for Braddon informed me a minute ago that he gave up on 26 June 1986, 24 years ago. I congratulate him for being smoke-free.

Like most smokers, I started when I was very young, a teenager as I assume the member for Braddon did as well. We all know that approximately eight out of 10 new smokers are either children or adolescents. We all remember going to the cinema and seeing the healthy and athletic images of the Marlboro man and we all wanted to emulate him. I am sure we all remember that very vividly and we remember other people smoking as well. When we think back, boy how wrong were we? Apart from that everyone lived in a society where most people smoked so I decided it was a good idea and took it up at a young age. But then we did not know what the devastating facts and the effects of smoking were and that over 20,000 people die every year from smoking directly, 350 people die each and every week. These days every smoker knows the facts, but because the addiction is so powerful all of the information in the world is not always enough to make you stop smoking. (Time expired)