Richard Di Natale (Victoria, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answer given by the Minister for Finance and Deregulation (Senator Wong) to a question without notice asked by Senator Di Natale today relating to the tobacco industry.

Firstly, just to put the problem in its context, I think it is important to understand that we have a huge issue with tobacco control in this country. One in six Australians still smokes. Around 15,000 Australians die from tobacco related illnesses. The economic costs of tobacco addiction are estimated at over $31 billion. That is more than half of the total health budget and it is 50 per cent more than the entire defence budget. It is a staggering sum of money. If we could only divert just a fraction of those costs to the economy, we would inject billions more into our nation's hospitals and its schools. As it is, we currently pay for 750,000 hospital bed days a year, and $600 million is spent by our hospitals directly on treatment of these diseases. Tobacco is a leading cause of preventable death and illness. The costs are huge, it is an enormous burden on our nation's health system and, under these circumstances, no government should sit on its hands.

It is important also to remember that, while sales of tobacco might be declining in developed countries, the tobacco industry is aggressively targeting low-income countries. Tobacco makers are targeting those emerging markets in order to compensate for declining sales in countries like Australia. So, unlike the people who use its product, the tobacco industry is in good shape.

The government has done some good things in this area. It set up the Australian National Preventive Health Agency, which is a very positive initiative, and, not surprisingly, tobacco control is at the top of its agenda. It has a target of reducing tobacco addiction to 10 per cent by 2018, and that is a worthwhile target. The government is also to be congratulated for its plain-packaging reforms.

But it is important to remember that the tobacco industry has fought every advance in tobacco policy since its inception. It has very deep pockets and, while it might not be able to hide from the body count of its product, it does aim to delay reform, to obfuscate and to deceive. History tells us that, with the current reform, we can expect attacks from all directions. This is an industry where experts are produced on demand, where controversy is manufactured, where the evidence is muddied and where the industry delays and stalls in order to sell more of its product. The industry also donates to political parties, and we are very disappointed that the Liberal Party has not adopted the policy of the Greens, which is to refuse to take tobacco donations in order to buy influence.

The government is not without fault, because, through the Future Fund, it currently invests taxpayers' money in the order of $150 million into this industry. We have funds in the order of $50 million going to British American Tobacco, $37 million to Philip Morris International and $26 million to Lorillard Inc., and there are a number of other entities. It is critical that the government change the Future Fund Act to ensure that it no longer invests in an industry which is undermining its own efforts in reducing preventable death and disease in the area of tobacco related illness. This is one of the major contradictions that lies at the heart of tobacco control policy in this country.

Of course, there are other things that can be done. We can extend the smoking restrictions in outdoor areas. I know that in my own home state the Municipal Association of Victoria has urged for a uniform state policy in that area. That is an important step, but the federal government has its part to play in this. It needs to address as a matter of urgency the contradiction that lies at the heart of its tobacco control efforts, and that is this government's investment of in the order of $150 million through the Future Fund. It is critical that it does it as a matter of urgency; otherwise, it is undermining its own attempts at what is one of the most important public health priorities in this country—that is, to stop young people from smoking and to prevent new people from taking up the habit.

Question agreed to.