Senator URQUHART (Tasmania) (13:43): I rise to speak in support of the Tobacco Advertising Prohibition Amendment Bill 2010. It is a bill that will remove an ambiguity in current legislation that allows advertisements for tobacco products on the internet and in other electronic media. This brings electronic means of advertising, whether on the internet or by mobile phone, in line with restrictions already in place for other mediums. Tobacco smoking remains one of the leading causes of preventable deaths and disease amongst Australians. Smoking kills over 15,000 Australians every year and costs our nation over $31 billion each year. Australia has much to be proud of in this area. Sustained and coordinated actions from the Australian government and state governments have seen smoking rates cut in half over the past 30 years. Now only about 15 per cent of Australians smoke daily. I am pleased that all levels of government have committed to reduce the harm caused by tobacco and aim to lower smoking rates to 10 per cent by 2018. This is a commitment not only to give Australians support in kicking the habit but, importantly, to seek to prevent Australians from taking up the smoking of tobacco in the first place. The bill will make it a specific offence to advertise or promote tobacco products on the internet and all other electronic media and future technologies unless compliant with state or territory legislation or Commonwealth regulations. Consider that, in 2009, 79 per cent of young Australians were regularly accessing the internet. That is four in five young Australians having regular access to a medium where there are no controls and no regulations over the advertising of tobacco products. This exposure, which I am told includes the glamorising of tobacco products in a manner that makes them subconsciously appealing to young people, could lead to a 'curious puff' in the playground and a terrible addiction. If we can limit this exposure and the perceived normality of tobacco smoking, we will limit the damage done to young Australians. In 2010, approximately four per cent of teenagers smoked tobacco—that is, one in 25 children, or at least one child in each high school classroom across this country, regularly smoked tobacco. People who start smoking when they are young are more likely to smoke heavily, to become more dependent on nicotine and to be at increased risk of smoking related illness or death. And more people tend to smoke in the lower socioeconomic regions of the country, such as parts of my home state of Tasmania. In the 2010 National Drug Strategy Household Survey, Tasmania was one of two states to record a statistically significant decrease in the proportion of daily smokers over the period from 2007 to 2010. The rate was down over 6.5 per cent—from 22.4 per cent of Tasmanians to 15.9 per cent. This is the first time in 10 years that Tasmania has recorded a decline in the proportion of people smoking daily. There is still much work to be done, though, as unfortunately there are some worrying statistics in this report for Tasmania. The proportion of daily smokers, while down on 2007, is the third worst amongst the states and territories. More than 500 Tasmanians die each year as a result of smoking. Alarmingly, over 25 per cent of those aged between 20 and 29 smoke daily—the second worst rate in the nation, only marginally behind the Northern Territory and a lot higher than the national average. These people grew up during the 1990s, after the act was legislated. Tobacco advertising and sponsorship was being seriously wound back in Australian society when they were children. Also, these people become adults after it became mandatory for graphic health warnings to be displayed on cigarette boxes. This figure is down from a constant rate of about a third of this age group throughout the 1990s and 2000s, which is a positive thing. The measures the Australian and Tasmanian governments have put in place are working. However, we must continue to make positive reforms and invest in positive programs to see this rate decrease further. Alarmingly, a large number of Tasmanian women—around 24 per cent—continue to smoke during pregnancy. This is a major concern not only because of the impact on the health and wellbeing of these women but also because of the impact on babies and small children. This bill is part of the Gillard Labor government's comprehensive anti-smoking action package, headlined by the mandatory plain packing of tobacco products, which passed the parliament last year and comes into effect later this year. This is the latest package in a 40-year effort to inform Australians about the harms of tobacco smoking. Reforms to tobacco advertising started in 1973 with the banning of tobacco advertising on television and radio and the introduction of mandatory health warnings on cigarette packets. And then in 1989 tobacco advertising was banned from newspapers and magazines. The Keating government introduced the Tobacco Advertising Prohibition Act in 1992, which sought to ban tobacco advertising in this country. The act makes it an offence to give publicity to, or promote, tobacco products but is not clear in its application to internet and mobile phone advertising of tobacco products. Since 1992 the use of the internet and other electronic means of advertising has increased. There is not much point in regulating other forms of advertising while allowing tobacco to be advertised on the internet and mobile phones without regulation. This unregulated loophole also undermines the effectiveness of the rest of the act and fosters the false perception that smoking is the norm. Several Australian websites sell cigarettes, while there are many where advertising is prevalent. These retail sites often do not post health warnings, nor do they comply with state and territory based legislation around point-of-sale advertising. I have come across Australian websites that offer large discounts on boxes of cigarettes. On these websites all of the packets are neatly presented; but there are no health warnings, let alone graphic health warnings, to be seen. It is not until you try to purchase a box that the 'not for sale to Australian residents' notice appears. These websites export Australian-made cigarettes across the globe. But the glamorous advertising is the damager here, and ending it is the crux of this bill. My concern with these websites is the ambivalent manner in which the health effects of tobacco smoking are treated; the advertised labels are a throwback to the 1960s, when no health warnings were displayed at all. As these shops are on the internet and currently not covered by the act, they do not have to show the appropriate graphic health warnings and they are able to show the packets in all their glory. This legislation will remove this loophole. A content analysis study of pro-tobacco websites revealed that only 11 per cent of the sites contained health warnings. The pro-tobacco sites frequently associated smoking as glamorous, with images of attractive young males and females. This raises concern that young people, who may not have seen a cigarette packet before, will stumble across these websites and interpret the pictures as the norm. They may not understand the effects of tobacco smoking. We must provide them with the same amount of protection from tobacco advertising as is provided through other mediums. People do not need to smoke many cigarettes to become addicted to smoking. Young people can be at risk of becoming addicted to smoking even if they only smoke occasionally, such as at parties or on holidays. Tobacco smoking is the single most preventable cause of ill health and death in Australia, contributing to more drug related hospitalisations and deaths than alcohol and illicit drug use combined. Diseases such as lung cancer and heart disease tend to occur in people who have smoked tobacco for a number of years. However, there are immediate and obvious effects from smoking just one cigarette. If a person has not smoked for 12 hours and then has a cigarette, the following things may happen: carbon monoxide levels in the lungs increase, vision and perception are impaired, coordination slows and the risk of an accident increases. Nicotine from tobacco smoke reaches the brain and muscle tissue soon after being inhaled. When nicotine is present, a number of things occur: the heart rate increases, blood pressure increases, skin temperature lowers, hands tremble, stomach secretions increase and brain activity spasms. Tobacco smoke increases resistance in the airways leading to the lungs and reduces lung capacity. This is why most smokers have heavy coughs and often struggle to walk up a small hill. Tobacco smoking is a leading cause of emphysema and chronic bronchitis. Emphysema, or lung rot, is a degenerative disease of the lung tissue. It destroys the tiny air sacs in the lungs slowly over many years. The lungs cannot repair this damage. Chronic bronchitis is the excess production of mucus in the air passages of the lungs. This bill seeks to go some way to stopping young or, indeed, any Australians from starting or returning to tobacco smoking. Lowering smoking rates will lower the number of people who are affected by these health problems I have just outlined. I commend the bill to the Senate.