Qld: Smoking bans won't affect businesses, supporters say

AAP General News (Australia)
12-29-2004
Qld: Smoking bans won't affect businesses, supporters say

By Rosemary Desmond

BRISBANE, Dec 29 AAP - Unions and health organisations today rejected tobacco industry
claims that new smoking bans to come into force on Saturday will devastate Queensland's
hospitality industry.

Imperial Tobacco (Australia) managing director Peter Richards said more than 2,000
businesses in the state would be affected by the new laws, triggering widespread revenue
losses and job shedding.

"There is no evidence that these bans will reduce the number of smokers, and yet experience
shows it will place an extreme cost burden on those operating pubs and clubs, many of
which are small businesses," Mr Richards said.

From January 1, smoking will be outlawed in Queensland on patrolled beaches, within
10 metres of children's playgrounds, at sporting stadiums and within four metres of building
entrances.

At least one third of an enclosed area of a hotel or club has to be non-smoking and
one third of a poker machine area also has to be non-smoking.

Queensland Cancer Fund spokesman Nathan Scholtz said the bans already had wide support
from the general public and any job losses would be minimal.

"We disagree (that) there will be that number of businesses affected," Mr Scholtz said.

"The evidence hasn't shown that at all."

He said smoking was the largest single preventable cause of death and disease in Australia.

Bans introduced over a number of years in places such as hotel lobbies, banks and planes
had also encountered predictions of a consumer backlash which never eventuated, Mr Scholtz
said.

"Predictions of doom and gloom haven't come to pass and we don't think they will this
time either," he said.

"You can bring back jobs but you can't bring back lives."

The union which represents hospitality industry workers also said Imperial Tobacco's
predictions of job losses were exaggerated.

A spokeswoman for the Liquor, Hospitality and Miscellaneous Workers' Union (LHMU) said
people would adjust to the smoking bans, as they had in other countries.

"People will be a bit grumpy at the start but they will adjust to it," she said.

The LHMU had fully supported the bans and had been party to the government's consultations,
she said.

Full smoking bans at hotels and clubs will come into force from July 1, 2006.

A spokeswoman for Queensland Health Minister Gordon Nuttall said there was evidence
overseas that smokers still went to hotels and clubs despite not being able to smoke.

Almost 21 per cent of all Queenslanders aged over 14 smoke daily - more than the national
average of 19 per cent.

AAP rad/ch/wjf/tnf g

KEYWORD: SMOKING QLD NIGHTLEAD

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