Cory Bernardi (SA, Australian Conservatives) Share this | Hansard source

I rise in support of this amendment, not because I'm a shill for Philip Morris or Rothmans, as has been insinuated, Senator Anning, but because I opposed plain packaging when the Liberal Party deliberated on it in the party room, on the basis that tobacco is a legal product, and plain packaging is an expropriation of trademarks, notwithstanding the merits of smoking. I'm anti-smoking. I don't like it. I also don't like pioneering, world-leading social justice legislation, as Senator Polley, I think, described it. Yes, I would prefer people not to smoke, but equally I think there is a principle attached to this. In effect trying to scuttle the plain paper packaging legislation, I think, is a reasonable, worthy amendment, and I will be supporting it.