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MEDIA RELEASE
NICK
XENOPHON M.L.C. INDEPENDENT
NO POKIES MEMBER OF THE LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL MINISTER
FIDDLES WHILST SMOKERS’ LUNGS BURN REVEALED:
FOR OVER 5 MONTHS HEALTH MINISTER HAS SAT ON KEY TOBACCO PLAN
As
State Parliament’s Upper House prepares to vote late today on the
Government’s watered down tobacco control legislation, No Pokies MLC Nick
Xenophon has revealed that the Health Minister has failed to publicly release
– since May of this year – a key report prepared by an expert committee to
curb smoking diseases in SA. It
is believed the Group’s State Tobacco Action Plan was
handed to the Minister in May of this year, but the Minister has yet to disclose
the report’s contents. “The questions have
to be asked: Why has the Minister sat on this key report for so long?
Why hasn’t Parliament got the benefit of the report’s recommendations
before the debate in Parliament is over? Would
the Minister be embarrassed by the release of this report while the legislation
is being dealt with in Parliament?” Mr
Xenophon will attempt to obtain a copy of the report during the Parliamentary
debate this afternoon. He will also put forward a number of amendments to the
Government’s bill, including:
● Bringing forward smoking bans to
pokies rooms and the casino to the end of 2004, instead of the Government’s
timetable of
● A 75% subsidy for Nicotine
patches to help smokers kick the habit.
●
Requiring cinemas to show anti
smoking adverts before films that glamorise smoking.
●
Reinstating point-of-sale
restrictions, which were in the Government’s original bill, but deleted after
the Government caved in to industry lobbying. "The Health Minister’s compromises and back-downs on this legislation are nothing short of sickening”.
Written and authorised by Nick Xenophon, 653 Lower North East Road, Paradise, SA 5075
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