State flags half-hearted smokes ban

Rita Panahi
Herald Sun
November 12, 2012

IT’S clear you can’t rely on smokers to do the right thing. Governments have had to legislate to stop them inflicting their poisonous fumes on us.

Bans on smoking in restaurants, pubs, sporting arenas, in cars with children and around playgrounds have been necessary thanks to the unrelenting selfishness of your typical tobacco enthusiast.

The latest bit of legislation designed to force smokers to behave like considerate human beings was introduced into State Parliament last month and is due to come into effect before Christmas.

The new laws will see smokers hit with a $140 fine if they light up between or within 50m of the flags on Victoria’s patrolled beaches.

The laws aim to protect families, particularly children, and to send a clear anti-smoking message, but succeed only in the rare feat of annoying smokers, non-smokers and anti-smoking groups alike.

Ted Baillieu’s Government is not often accused of bold and decisive action so we shouldn’t be surprised that these smoking bans are underwhelming, ineffectual and unlikely to lead to any meaningful change in attitude or behaviour. The Cancer Council, Australian Medical Association, Quit Victoria and the Heart Foundation have all lined up to criticise the legislation for not going far enough to stamp out this ugly habit from public areas.

The new laws mimic the Queensland bans that have been in place since 2005, but Queensland’s beach culture is completely different from Melbourne, as are its beaches.
Limiting the ban to patrolled beaches renders the new laws utterly pointless, given that we are a city by the bay and the majority of our beaches are not patrolled and flagged. For every patrolled beach in a bayside suburb there are several other much-used stretches of sand that remain unflagged and unaffected by this legislation even in the summer months.

From April to mid-November no beach in Victoria is flagged and patrolled.

The policy may be well-intentioned but the execution is deeply flawed and will result in maximum confusion, particularly on busy beaches covered by existing smoking bans. Port Phillip and Hobsons Bay councils already have bans in place that see every beach from Elwood to Altona declared a smoke-free zone.

Along with the Surf Coast Shire, these councils have a strict no-smoking policy at all beaches at all times. These blanket bans and the resources to enforce them are the only way to deal with recalcitrant smokers who not only infuriate other beachgoers with their noxious fumes but their complete disregard for litter laws.

A 10-week study carried out by Port Phillip Eco Centre last year found approximately 25,000 cigarette butts on just a 200m section of St Kilda beach. And that is after the council smoking bans that saw cigarette butt litter reduce by 24 per cent at that very beach.

Sadly, with the majority of litter on beaches coming from the stormwater system we are unlikely to ever soak our feet in the sand without brushing against an arsenic-riddled butt.

Despite countless education campaigns cigarette butts remain the most littered item in Victoria, accounting for more than 50 per cent of all litter.

What is it about nicotine that turns normally sane and considerate people into antisocial terrors? People who would never think of discarding an empty chip wrapper out of their car window think nothing of throwing their filthy cigarette butts wherever they are, even if it’s at a pristine beach.

It’s little wonder that in every recent poll the overwhelming majority of Australians are in favour of increased smoking bans in public areas, particularly beaches, parks, outdoor dining areas and around public buildings.

Yet Victoria continues to lag behind other states in introducing such bans, so much so that the AMA awarded the Baillieu Government the 2012 Dirty Ashtray Award for being the worst-performed government in tobacco control