AMA 15th National Conference 2003 - Media Conference - Dr Kerryn Phelps, AMA President - Presentation the 2003 AMA/ACOSH National Tobacco Scoreboard Awards

PHELPS: Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to this year's presentation of the National Tobacco Scoreboard.

This afternoon we reveal to you which state or territory has done the most work over the past year in stopping people smoking. It's been a tradition for the past nine years to present the much anticipated National Tobacco Scoreboard to coincide with World No Tobacco Day which is tomorrow.

The AMA and the Australian Council on Smoking and Health, or ACOSH, jointly sponsor the scoreboard.

This initiative draws attention to progress and lack of progress on tobacco control and it compares the performances of state and territory governments. The state or the territory that has done the best in 2002-2003 to combat smoking is rewarded while the state or territory that has done the worst is shamed with the now infamous Dirty Ashtray Award.

On that basis, this year's winner is, indeed, an achiever. The AMA/ACOSH National Tobacco Scoreboard winner for 2002-2003 is, believe it or not, the Northern Territory with its top score of 52 points.

Congratulations to the Northern Territory on being a high achiever for 2002 and winning the scoreboard for the very first time and congratulations too, Paul Bauert, in getting rid of the Dirty Ashtray Award you received last year for coming last.

BAUERT: Thank you very much. This is a fantastic change from my normal appearance on this day each year at the national conference. For the last four years I've collected the Dirty Ashtray on behalf of the Northern Territory Government. That Government has changed recently and the new government under Clare Martin needs to be congratulated and her Health Minister, Jane Aagaard, for bringing in legislation which has, to their credit, been widely accepted by the general community and has made great leaps forward in terms of what we can do to decrease the rate of smoking and smoking illness in the Territory.

There's still a lot to do and we're going to be watching the government very closely to make sure that there's no fallback on the legislation, make sure that that legislation is really enacted.

We have particular problems in our remote communities with very high levels of smoking but this is great and I'll be delighted to present it to the new government. Thank you.

PHELPS: And Paul, I understand from my meetings with the Health Minister in your Territory that they were not all that keen to accept the Dirty Ashtray Award last year and they were very keen to get on with that new legislation and congratulations for your excellent lobbying effort in public health. The Northern Territory has done incredible things in just a year.

They performed particularly well in the categories of regulations on smoking in enclosed public places, workplaces, tobacco promotion restrictions and initiatives to address youth uptake. Legislation dealing with these issues came into effect on January 1 this year with other initiatives chiming in from May 31. All this work shot the Territory straight to the top and so congratulations, Paul, it's nice to see you at the other end of the scale.

I'll now run through all the scores on the scoreboard.

This year we had a curious situation as three state runners-up all tied at 50 points: Victoria, who hosted the second Australian National Tobacco Control Conference this year, has come equal second with New South Wales and Western Australia. Clearly they still have a way to go.

South Australia is fifth on 43 points. The ACT is sixth on 40 points. Tasmania is seventh on 38 points and this year's Dirty Ashtray Award goes to Queensland on 36 points.

Now, despite Queensland being the year's most disappointing performer, we do wish to acknowledge their performance in the development of programs for indigenous Australians and in researching specific health concerns for women and smoking.

Now, I'd like to call forward the new AMA Queensland President - I'm really sad for you that this is your first official function at a national conference - Dr Ingrid Tall, to accept the Dirty Ashtray Award.

TALL: Thank you very much, Kerryn.

PHELPS: You're welcome.

TALL: Hooray. Oh, good, with a photo opportunity. Good.

Well, I think that this might have been leaked to the Queensland Government because, funnily enough, I did get a phone call from the Chief Medical Officer saying, "Ingrid, I think we need to sit down and discuss what initiatives Queensland Health is having with tobacco control." So that was yesterday so I think he knew before ACOSH and before perhaps even AMA federally, who knows?

But we're quite experienced at this. We've won five out of 10 so, unfortunately, we're getting quite used to it and I know that Queensland's famous for the big pineapple but soon it will be famous for the big cigarette so there's a great, big entrepreneurial business opportunity out there for somebody.

Queensland does have the highest smoking rate out of all of the states and, of course, we've found out that we spend the least out of all the states and territories in combating this epidemic of tobacco addiction that we have in our state. It is a shameful state of affairs, particularly when we're seeing female teenagers in Queensland taking it up faster than ever before.

There's a higher percentage now of female teenagers compared to male teenagers in Queensland that smoke and it's a particular problem for women, of course, because cigarette for cigarette women are at an increased risk of lung cancer and heart disease and stroke and lung disorders well.

Also, of course, there are other gender specific issues there, for instance, an increased incidence in cervical cancer, also if women are on the pill that increases their risk of stroke and heart disease by tenfold if they're a smoker. Of course, then, when they have a baby they're at risk of their baby having tobacco foetal syndrome and being small or retarded in terms of growth and also menopausal women, it brings on the menopause one or two years earlier than would otherwise happen and also the menopausal symptoms are more savage than if they didn't smoke as well so when it comes to women and smoking it's a major problem and the Queensland Cancer Fund recently released data suggesting that soon the lung cancer deaths will outstrip the breast cancer deaths in Queensland and that's tipped to occur next year.

In Western Australia this has already happened so I'm trying to make Queensland look good. I don't know if it's working. Luckily we're standing here in a state where the air is as clean as in all of Australia. New South Wales has got the lowest smoking rates and we do congratulate the work that New South Wales has done.

So thank you for the award. There's a lot of work to be done and we'll be busy doing it. Thank you very much.

PHELPS: Thank you, Ingrid, and the challenge is certainly there for the Queensland Government to get their act together and get some legislation in place that will see them higher up on the scoreboard for next year.

I'd like to now invite questions from the media, if you have any questions at all about tobacco, smoking and the AMA/ACOSH awards.

Nice to see we've covered it all. Thank you all very much. The national conference will resume shortly.

Ends