Woollard renews push for smoking bans
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Dr Woollard is pushing to ban smoking in cars carrying children. (Reuters: Alexandra Beier, file photo)
The Independent Member for Alfred Cove, Janet Woollard, will introduce a Private Members Bill in Parliament today aimed at reducing tobacco sales in Western Australia.
If passed, the legislation would ban smoking in cars with children, outlaw smoking in al fresco dining areas and on patrolled beaches and ban the display of tobacco products at the point of sale.
Dr Woollard says she hopes the new laws would help people stop smoking.
"Fourteen hundred West Australians die each year [from smoking], so what this legislation is hoping to do is to cut back on the number of people, to help people cut back on smoking and help bring those figures down," she said.
"I'm hoping there's going to be bipartisan support for the Bill, there are certainly members on both sides, in fact from all three parties, Labor, Liberal and Nationals who have voiced their support for the measures I'm introducing."
Reject suggestions
Dr Woollard, has rejected suggestions police do not have the resources to enfore tougher smoking bans.
The Police Commissioner, Karl O'Callaghan, says restrictions on smoking in vehicles would be difficult to police.
But Dr Woollard says if police can monitor mobile phone use in cars, they should be able to stop smoking in cars with children.
"This is an aspect of policing that is currently being done, it is just an extension of that, it is checking," she said.
"Yes, the children are in their seatbelts, that people aren't speaking on phones, and it's checking that children are not being exposed to cigarette smoke."
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