New Tobacco Laws to Protect Children

The ADAVB welcomes new Victorian tobacco laws that will help prevent young people from taking up smoking, protect children from exposure to second-hand smoke in motor vehicles, and support more adults to quit smoking.

Introducing the Tobacco Amendment (Protection of Children) Bill 2009 to Parliament last week, Health Minister Daniel Andrews said smoking remained the leading avoidable cause of many cancers, respiratory, cardiovascular and other diseases.

The key reforms include:

• Banning the display of tobacco products in retail outlets (other than specialist tobacconists and on-airport duty free shops);
• Banning smoking in cars carrying a person under 18 years of age;
• Banning the sale of cigarettes from temporary booths at events such as The Big Day Out or the Melbourne Grand Prix;
• Providing the Health Minister with the power to ban youth-orientated tobacco products and packaging, such as fruit-flavoured cigarettes; and
• Stronger penalties and enforcement provisions.

Aside from the point-of-sale tobacco display ban, which will be introduced on 1 January 2011, the remaining reforms will commence on 1 January 2010.

The ADAVB made a submission to the Government in 2008 in support of these measures.