South Australia has the dubious distinction of receiving the
AMA’s annual Dirty Ashtray Award for the second year in a row for the
Australian State or Territory that made the least progress on combating smoking
during 2009/10.
Ahead of World No Tobacco Day on 31 May, AMA Federal
President, Dr Andrew Pesce today announced results of the AMA/Australian
Council on Smoking and Health (ACOSH) National Tobacco Scoreboard.
The scoreboard allocates points to each State and Territory
in various categories, including legislation, to track how effective
governments have been at combating smoking in the previous 12 months. For the
first time, this year the Commonwealth Government was considered as part of the
same ranking process as State and Territory governments.
“It’s disappointing that South Australia is falling behind
the rest of the country when it comes to tobacco control,” Dr Pesce said.
“South Australia has shown a continued failure to implement
a comprehensive approach to tobacco control, and especially to protect the
interests of children and non-smokers.
“There has been no progress on banning point-of-sale
displays or protecting non-smokers in alfresco dining areas and outdoor
drinking areas at licensed premises.”
At the other end of the scale and for the first time, the
Commonwealth Government was ranked as the best performer on the 2009/10
National Tobacco Control Scoreboard.
Presenting the award to Prime Minister Kevin Rudd earlier
today, Dr Pesce said that the Australian Government was to be congratulated on
its comprehensive and determined approach to tobacco control.
He said that he hoped
the results of the National Tobacco Control Scoreboard would encourage
governments to do more to combat tobacco use.
Source-AMA
SRM
