27th June, 2001
AMA Victoria President, Mukesh Haikerwal, today welcomed the new Victorian government bans on smoking in dining areas, but warned the restrictions needed to go further.
"AMA Victoria voted in 1997 to support a ban on smoking in all enclosed public places, and the government’s smoking bans in dining areas are a great move towards achieving this goal," Dr Haikerwal said.
"However, there really is some urgency in ensuring the bans are extended to all enclosed public places.
"For every month, or year, we allow smoking to continue in hotels, bars and gaming venues, we endanger the health of too many people. The health effects of passive smoking are so well documented that no government or employer should allow employees and patrons to be exposed to smoke.
"Victoria just scraped into second place in this year’s National AMA/ACOSH Tobacco Control Scoreboard, which was a wonderful achievement. The introduction of smoking bans in dining areas pushed us up from last year’s fourth place, but what will let us down in the future is the limited extent of our smoking bans.
"So while AMA Victoria applauds bans on smoking in dining areas, what we are really looking forward to is a ban on smoking in all public enclosed areas, which must include workplaces."