Mixed Smoke Signals

Newcastle Herald

Monday July 11, 2005

HE SAID SHE SAID WITH DAVID AND TANYA OF KO-FM 102.9

SO the NSW Government has finally activated the next phase of its bid to eradicate smoking from pubs and clubs.

It's already illegal to smoke in restaurants, aeroplanes, buses, trains, workplaces in fact just about anywhere EXCEPT your own home and your own car . . . and it probably won't be long before they're banned too.

There have already been cases of neighbours complaining about smoke billowing over the fence into their yard and I'm sure it will only take one decent lawsuit to make sure it's not just the barbecue! Remember how it started with the airlines? A couple of lawsuits and hey presto banned on every plane in the world.

It's not illegal to purchase cigarettes in NSW and smoke them. If the Government really wanted to make a point, it would simply make them illegal.

But then they'd be sacrificing the millions of dollars it collects in taxes from the dreaded bungers and when it comes to reaping riches, governments have no moral fibre whatsoever.

Smokers will say they have as much right to smoke as non-smokers have to demand unpolluted air around them because what they are doing is NOT illegal.

It will be interesting to see if anyone, patron or licensee, cops the $550 or $5500 fines respectively for breaching this new law, or will it just be roundly ignored in the same way thousands of drivers still drive with one hand on the wheel and one hand on their mobile phone, knowing that there's a million to one chance they'll get caught?

"YOUR right to swing your arm ends where another person's nose begins."

I don't know which clever smarty-pants came up with that one but I think of it every time a smoker puffs out their blackened chest cavity and verbalises their right to smoke. I welcome the new smoking laws but I think they're a cop-out.

By dithering and delaying a total indoor smoking ban in clubs and pubs, the State Government is scraping its fingernails across a blackboard for the next two years which is excruciating for all concerned.

Honestly, you'd swear by looking after the health of their citizens, our governments think they have something to lose, like millions of dollars in tax raised from gaming machines, cigarettes and alcohol.

Their fears, however, are easily dispelled when you look to the other more progressive world governments who have already implemented such bans.

In fact, the only real problem a total smoking ban has thrown up comes from Ireland.

In country pubs where farmers and their friends once enjoyed a pint and a puff after a long day on the land, patron numbers are dwindling but the ban is not to be blamed.

The smell of the smoke did a mighty job masking the stench of hard-working farmers' body odour but now that the air has cleared, so have the stools beside the fetid farmers.

Good news though, the inhalation of body odour doesn't kill, it just costs a little bit more in air freshener.

David and Tanya can be heard on KOFM 102.9 from 5.30am to 9am Monday to Friday. Email davidandtanya@kofm.com.au