John Williams (NSW, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

It does get hard at times, doesn't it? I can recall Senator Forshaw in the chair. He was very strict but he was a very different Senator Forshaw when he was sitting over on the other side of the chamber.

You know what I believe about property rights. You may dislike the product—ban it if you wish; make it illegal—but the tobacco companies have a legal product as it stands and they have a property right, just like the farmers in the example I gave earlier. It might even have been Senator Wong who gave that advice to then Minister Kim Yeadon in the New South Wales parliament. Who knows? It is something we will never find out. But this is the issue: the cost and what will come out of it.

The government brought in the alcopops tax in an effort to raise the price of mixed drinks in cans—and I must admit I have shared the odd can of Bundy and cola in my life, in moderation of course. What do the young ones do then? They turn to buying a bottle of rum and a bottle of Coke and mixing it themselves, which is a very dangerous situation. I do hope that this does reduce smoking but I also hope that it does not cost the nation billions and billions of dollars. And I do hope the government have their legal advice correct.