Friday 27 November 2009

Out & About, The Australian, 27 November, 2009.

I edited this column for several months at the end of 2009. It was a Murdoch idea he had first tried more than 20 years before. It didn't work back then, and with four different editions across the country, it was a nightmare.
I was taken off general news, not even my chief of staff was told what was happening, and it was a standing joke that one of their latest fiasco was to take one of their most experienced reporters off general news and give him an arts column.
I would get to work at 4 am and leave at 7 pm. I had never subbed anything in my life, but sub-editing everything in this column was suddenly part of my job, a specialised and finicky job.
All hell broke loose when I asked for overtime and Out & About was the precipitating factor in my leaving the The Australian. Under the stress of it all, and still with two kids to care for, I literally, medically, almost had a heart attack.
I had been a general news reporter for heading on to 30 years and I hated sitting under fluorescent lights editing other people's crap all day.
Management thought because I was different I was artistic.
It was a chronic, classic example of news Limited editorial mismanagement. Read between the lines. Their appalling style of management continues to this day.
 I had been in newspapers almost my entire adult life, and leaving was a very difficult experience. This is the column that did it. "Murdoch is watching," I was told, when given the job.
Huh!




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Friday 23 October 2009

Lanky yank Don Lane Bows out at 75 The Australian 23 October 2009

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/opinion/columnists/lanky-yank-don-lane-bows-out-at-75/story-e6frg8qo-1225790185894

Lanky Yank Don Lane bows out at 75

  • ROSALIE HIGSON, JOHN STAPLETON AND GRAEME BLUNDELL
  • THE AUSTRALIAN
  • OCTOBER 23, 2009 1:00AM
OBITUARY: Don Lane. Entertainer. Born New York City, November 13, 1933. Died Sydney, October 22, age 75.
DON Lane, the Lanky Yank, was once Australia's most popular and highest paid television personality. In the 1970s and 80s The Don Lane Show was must-see television, winning its host a swag of Logies, including the gold.
His show was based on the US hit The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, and Lane put his stamp on a successful formula and brought a little Hollywood glitz into Australian loungerooms. His interview style was friendly, laid-back and unpretentious. He was an irrepressibly generous television performer who seemed to have entree to all the stars; with his famous determination, he would not take no for an answer.
Lane was born Morton Donald Isaacson in New York on November 13, 1933. He grew up in The Bronx with his Jewish father Jacob, a policeman, and Catholic mother Dolly (who later converted to Judaism). He took his stage name from American singer Frankie Laine. He was drafted into the US Army in the early 1950s and served as an artillery officer. Lane later toured for two years entertaining the troops.
He was singing at the Copacabana nightclub in Hawaii when he was recruited by Channel 9 out of Sydney to replace talk show host Dave Allen, who had left his series suddenly (fellow entertainer Wayne Newton recommended him).
Lane was initially given the host's chair for six weeks, but within a month had been signed to a long-term contract.
He migrated to Australia in 1965, building a career as a leading nightclub performer before his almost accidental move into television. The Don Lane Show debuted in 1975 and he worked for the Nine Network until the final episode aired in 1983. It ran for 2 1/2 hours and featured stars who had previously appeared on his show, including his good friend Sammy Davis Jr, Phyllis Diller, David Bowie and John Farnham.
There is no equivalent of Lane in Australia today and for younger generations it is almost impossible to envisage just how big he was. Rove McManus may be popular, but he doesn't have the same Las Vegas pizazz. With his sidekick Bert Newton, the brash New Yorker developed an inspired mix of celebrity interviews, stunts and buffoonery that lasted for years. It was an era of hefty salaries and giant expense accounts. Stars who appeared on his show included Robin Williams, Billy Connolly, Dame Edna, Tony Curtis, Peter Sellers, ABBA and Kiss.
Lane had a great sense of humour: he gave his friend Newtown the famous nickname Moonface. "What a wonderful country it is when a lanky New York Jew can come here and team up with a tubby Melbourne Catholic and form a duo that is more personable, more entertaining than even Mike and Mal Leyland," joked Paul Hogan, another of Lane's friends.
"We were magic from the time he walked out from the curtain," Lane told the ABC in 2003 of the partnership. "You don't try to explain those things. You just take them and you use them and you enjoy them, and most of all you appreciate them because they don't happen often, they happen once in a rare while."
Newton credits Lane with reinventing the variety show, saying that without him the genre may not have survived. "(Without him) I think variety would have died early in the piece," he says.
"Don was certainly the most generous performer that I worked with; he didn't mind where the laughs were coming from and who was getting the laughs. All I can say is that I can't think of anyone who I liked more in the industry, anyone I enjoyed working with, more than Don Lane."
The Lanky Yank - he stood 193cm - also loved sport and was ahead of the game when it came to personal fitness. He hosted American NFL broadcasts, which included live broadcasts from Super Bowl XXVII and Super Bowl XXVIII, covered NCAA basketball for the ABC and was a commentator for the NBL on Foxtel. For more than 10 years he coached students in basketball at St Aloysius' College in Sydney, earning a CAS (Combined Associated Schools) Championship in 1999.
As with any life carried out in the public eye, there were a few bumpy patches. In 1968, as well as winning best male personality and best show for Tonight with Don Lane, he was charged with importing marijuana, but was successfully defended by then barrister Marcus Einfeld. He had a long-running feud with television host and comedian Ernie Sigley, and while his show rated through the roof from 1975 to 1983 he also sparked headlines and controversy.
He notoriously told psychic debunker James Randi to "piss off" on national television, causing a furore.
Guests such as Liza Minnelli, Davis Jr, Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis, Kirk Douglas, Sellers, Dolly Parton, Stevie Wonder, Muhammad Ali and Bob Hope brought Hollywood glamour closer to Australian viewers than ever. An appearance on The Don Lane Show would guarantee sell-out shows for visiting performers.
Leading comedy writer Mike McColl Jones wrote gags for him through the 70s and 80s. "Promoters loved us," he recalls. "There was nothing bigger than us. Australians would stay up in their droves and go to bed with a laugh." Even prime ministers Malcolm Fraser and Bob Hawke went on the show. (Highlights of the Hawke interview can be seen on YouTube.)
Using then-new satellite technology, the live crosses that he did into stars' homes and dressing-rooms gave the impression he knew all the world's greatest performers. The Don Lane Show's executive producer Peter Faiman, best known for directing Crocodile Dundee, remained friends with Lane. His wife, Jennifer Jobson, was Lane's best friend and confidante, and visited him every day.
"Everyone forgets the massive influence of the show," Faiman says.
"It regularly produced headlines around Australia. He was surprising, unpredictable, always affable, always warm, always extremely open. He was unquestionably one of the major players in defining night-time entertainment in Australia. He was volatile but at the same time always professional and personally very charming."
Increasing frailty meant that Lane had not been seen in public for years. Friends say Lane's condition slowly worsened, but there was no defining point at which his dementia became obvious. He was admitted to a care facility last year. Faiman says Lane's personality and sense of humour had helped him deal with the condition.
Lane was charismatic both off and on stage. Bob Phillips, producer of The Don Lane Show, says Lane always loved women, and in return was loved by them.
His illness had come as a shock to friends, partly because he was a "total health nut" who rarely drank, built his own tennis court and hired a tennis coach, and was always downing vitamin supplements.
"There were very few people we didn't get on the show, every major act in the world was interviewed by Don," Phillips says. "The public (was) immensely curious about him. He wasn't a big star in America, but we didn't know that. We thought he knew all these people personally."
Lane was married twice; he remained good friends with Jayne Ambrose, his manager and agent, who married Lane 20 years ago. Their son P.J. Isaacson, a former professional basketball player who Lane encouraged to go into show business, is in Australia. He relocated because of concern about his father's health.
For Lane, what was supposed to be a temporary sojourn in Australia led to him becoming one of the country's most popular entertainers, ultimately winning 15 Logies.
He was inducted into the Logies Hall of Fame in 2003, in what was one of his last public appearances.
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Tuesday 25 August 2009

Marriage Matters, Dads On The Air, 25 August, 2009.

Marriage Matters

DateTUESDAY, AUGUST 25, 2009 AT 10:30AM
With special guests:
  • Warwick Marsh  and
  • Bill Kable.

First we speak with the founder of the Dads4Kids Fatherhood Foundation, which is now Australia’s largest pro-father, pro-marriage and pro-family charity, Warwick Marsh.

Warwick, together with his wife and daughter, recently attended the Smart Marriages Conference in Florida, USA. During his US tour in July, Warwick met with leaders in the American fatherhood and marriage movement and recorded many interviews for TV and radio. He speaks with us about his recent tour and his passion to promote marriage and the virtues of staying together for better or worse.

Next we introduce the newest member of the Dads on the Air team, Bill Kable. Bill is a Sydney lawyer who is also a professional mediator with a mission to encourage fathers to take an active role in the lives of their children, and to ensure they remain in the lives of their children should parental separation occur.  

Bill speaks candidly about some of his own experiences with the family justice system, and how it fails non custodial parents and their children, especially in the area of non-enforcement of contact orders.  

Also in the studio were two other new members of the Dads on the Air team, Bill’s wife Catherine, a University lecturer and Trevor Miller, a retired ABC TV editor. All of whom have had extensive experience with the family justice system and realize the urgent need to ensure the nation’s children obtain real equal shared parenting time with both of their  parents, following parental separation.  Welcome aboard.   

On 13th August 2009 the Dads4Kids Fatherhood Foundation helped the Australian Family Association to stage Australia’s first National Marriage Day breakfast celebration to a capacity crowd in the Great Hall of Parliament House, Canberra. This is some of what Warwick had to say:

“Our society over the last few decades seems to be in terminal decay. As Bishop Al Stewart said, “We live in a society that talks about peace and contentment, and yet we seem to grow further and further from both. We get richer, but relationally poorer. Our weddings get bigger and our marriages get shorter. Our houses get bigger and our families get smaller. We communicate across the world without difficulty but can’t talk across the dinner table.”

The issues of family breakdown, accompanied by an even greater moral breakdown, fill our TV screens on a nightly basis. We have a global financial crisis with an accompanying financial deficit but our society appears to be suffering most of all from a love deficit. Our burgeoning prison population would seem to be the best indicator of this deficit.

The only way to keep our goals from overcrowding in our crime infested society is to keep lowering the penalties for crime. It is claimed that sexual assault is 70% unreported these days and yet reported sexual assault has increased by almost 30% since 1999. Men in prison for sexual assault in Australia have doubled since 1988.

The American prison population has skyrocketed over the past quarter of a century. In 1982, 1 in 77 adults were in the US correctional system in one form or another, totalling 2.2 million adults. In 2007 the US correctional population - those in gaol, prison, on probation or parole totalled 7.3 million or 1 in every 31 adults. That is a 50% increase in under 3 decades.

The really frightening statistic is that 78% of America’s prison inmates grew up in a fatherless household. Unfortunately it is not much different here in Australia. The great majority of prison inmates have grown up in fatherless homes. Indeed it is the single largest predictor of crime and incarceration.

Fatherlessness and family breakdown, as verified by the divorce rate, have been growing for decades. The good news is that things are beginning to change when it comes to long term love. The divorce rate in Australia peaked to an all time high in 2001 but had dropped 15% in overall numbers by 2007. There were 116,322 registered marriages in Australia in 2007, the highest number of marriages registered since 1990 and an  increase of 12% since the marriage low point in 2001.

The tide is beginning to turn. Our society has hit the wall and the wall is hard. Divorce is a very painful experience for all concerned. Our children often take decades to recover. Many men, overcome with grief at losing their children through an anti-male family law system, take their own lives in desperation. Recent reports of a drop in suicide rate are a mirage according to Professor John Mendoza.

The cumulative pain is becoming too much to bear and our society is looking for answers. Our society has lost much over the last few decades, but that very loss might become part of our inspiration to reverse the love deficit.

Perhaps the inspiration to reverse the love deficit is coming from our young people. Older people and politicians think that young people aren’t interested in marriage and family but nothing could be further from the truth. In a study released in 2002 in ‘Family Matters’, a publication of the ‘Australian Institute of Family Studies’, over 80% of 17 and 18 year old teenagers want to get married. Over 75% of 17 and 18 year old teenagers want  to have children and become mums and dads, most sooner than later, and over 90% want a long-term relationship which in our adult world of ‘throw away’ relationships is revolutionary to say the least.

Another indicator of the renewed desire to reverse the love deficit and encourage marriage in Australia was the inaugural National Marriage Day breakfast held on 13th August in the Great Hall of Parliament House, Canberra. Five hundred people jammed the Great Hall for a mid-week celebration of life and love, organised by the Australian Family Association. Major General Michael Jeffery, Australia’s former Governor General, was appointed with his wife Marlena as National Marriage Day Ambassadors.

However many would argue that the real highlight of the morning was the young revolutionaries from RISE (Restoring Integrity and Sexual Ethics). Jessica Langrell, one of the 19 year old leaders of RISE, in her speech to the capacity crowd in the Great Hall said, “I stand on behalf of the entire RISE team as the new generation who genuinely believe that romantic relationships are properly orientated towards marriage and that sex belongs in marriage, not outside it - and we want to show how this is a better way for all young people in Australia … We oppose the ‘hook up’ culture and want to support each other in resisting it … We are challenging young people to be courageous and act with integrity, but also in truth, clarity and sharpness…this choice should be available for all young people.”

There are many young revolutionaries like Jessica who are becoming part of the new counter culture who are rejecting the ‘if it feels good, do it’ mantra of the baby-boomer ‘sex, drugs, rock and roll’ generation. They are looking for authentic relationships in a culture that has lost its ability to sustain them.

The popularity of ‘Find Your Family’, one of the highest rating shows on TV, is mute testament to the hunger for deeper family relationships. The massive popularity of the ‘World’s Strictest Parents’ is according to a recent article in the Herald Sun an indicator of a shift in values. The article stated, “The difference in 2009 is that networks realise that the mood of Australian TV viewers has changed and they are hankering for positive, uplifting reality shows.”

Hollywood is also getting in on the party. Movies with hero father figures have been strangely popular of late e.g. the last two ‘Night at the Museum’s, featuring Ben Stiller as the dad hero. Other movies like ‘Swing Vote’ with Kevin Costner and ‘Mall Cop’ are stories featuring imperfect but heroic fathers. After decades of father bashing, Hollywood is now realising that family themed movies are its biggest grossing productions.

Maybe our society is beginning to listen to the cry of our children. Dads4Kids Fatherhood Foundation has recently completed its community service announcements (CSAs) that will be released for Father’s Day and aired for the rest of the year.  This Father’s Day we asked children what advice they would give to Australia’s fathers. Eleven year old Brad said, ‘Fathers should spend more time with their children and less time at work.” A seven year old girl said something similar but added that Dads should let their children win when they play games with them. Her words became the caption for the CSA campaign, ‘Dads - Helping Kids Win’; because when dads put their children first they create a win-win situation.

In our society it seems that the voice of the children is beginning to be heard. The dads are responding, our TV stations are listening and even Hollywood can hear the voice of the children. Call it a renewal of fatherhood, or a love revolution, but whatever you call it, if it continues, there will be empty gaols dotted all over the Australian landscape and that would be a big win for our nation, our families and our children.”

About Warwick Marsh

Warwick Marsh is the founder of the Dads4Kids Dads4Kids Fatherhood Foundation with his wife Alison. They have five children and have been married for 34 years. Warwick is on the board of a number of non profit organisations and has been working in the community on a voluntary basis for 19 years. Warwick’s background is as a musician and creative communicator/TV producer. He has produced over a dozen albums and over 20 TV shows. Warwick is also the editor in chief of Australia’s longest running weekly Dads4Kids email newsletter which started in 2002. The Dads4Kids Fatherhood Foundation has produced Fathers Day and Mothers Day TV community service announcements for national TV over the same period. In 2001 Warwick received a Centenary Medal from the Governor General for service in musical leadership for young people and the Aboriginal community and his international missions and aid work.


Dads4Kids Fatherhood Foundation PO Box 542 UNANDERRA NSW 2526 Ph: 02 4272 6677 Fax: 02 4272 6680 Email: info@fatherhood.org.au Web: www.fatherhood.org.au

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Tuesday 11 August 2009

The Menace of Extreme Feminism, Dads On The Air, 11 August, 2009.

The Menace of Extreme Feminism

DateTUESDAY, AUGUST 11, 2009 AT 10:30AM
With special guests:
  • Amfortas.
This week we look at the struggle of the community to deal with the outrageous effects of extreme feminist dogma on our daily lives. Much of the discourse centers around myths and rogue statistics which paint a very negative picture of the men and boys in our communities.

This propaganda machine which rolls out a production line of inaccurate information of a misandrist nature, is being used as a template to formulate anti male government policy, and which is proving so detrimental to the health and well-being of the males in our society.

Unfortunately our leaders ignore community calls for them to more aggressively enquire about the accuracy of the anti male information they receive, and on which they base their judgement and ultimately cast their vote.

We recently saw our Australian federal opposition leader Malcolm Turnbull, make the mistake of not checking the accuracy of the information presented to him. He did this to his own detriment and is now paying the political price for ignoring the need for scrutiny.

Yet when Senator Steve Fielding goes on a search for the truth regarding the global warming climate debate, he is ridiculed by fellow politicians and the media, for doing so. While at the same time government members, like lemmings jumping over a cliff, blindly toe the anti-male line and continue to refuse to question the accuracy of the extreme feminist dogma that permeates our corridors of power, and continue to vote against equality and justice for men.

Amfortas together with other concerned citizens, has put together an excellent series of podcasts on the need for accuracy in reporting, on what can only be described as the human rights abuses of men and boys, and explains how, when and why, this is happening.
Listen Now (MP3)
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Thursday 23 July 2009

Property clearance rates going strong, The Australian, 13 July, 2009.

Property clearance rates going strong

Stapleton, John. The Australian [Canberra, A.C.T] 13 July 2009: 6.
Show highlighting
Kevin Lee, of Smartline mortgages, said the improved clearance rates were a sign of first-home buyer activity and reaction to thegovernment's continuation of the first-home buyers grant.
THE property market continued to show signs of recovery at the weekend, with comparatively healthy auction clearance rates and turnover.
The clearance rate in Sydney was 69 per cent, well up on the 48 per cent for the same time last year, said Australian Property Monitors.
More than $77 million worth of property changed hands, the top sale being a three-bedroom house at Cronulla, in the city's south, going for $2.75m.
In Melbourne, a clearance rate of 72 per cent was a hefty 20 percentage points better than last year's result. The most expensive was a three-bedroom townhouse in Brighton East, which sold for $1.25m.
Brisbane's clearance rate of 45per cent also represented a significant improvement on last year's 23 per cent, while Adelaide's clearance rate was 66 per cent, up from 39 per cent on the corresponding weekend in 2008.
Kevin Lee, of Smartline mortgages, said the improved clearance rates were a sign of first-home buyer activity and reaction to thegovernment's continuation of the first-home buyers grant.
"The problem is, getting approvals for loans from banks and other lending institutions is increasingly difficult," he said.
"I've been in the finance industry for 15 years and have never ever seen it this hard. Some of their policies and practices defy reason."
Australian Property Monitors head of research Yvonne Chan said the auction clearance rates in capital cities remained strong.
"Although medium prices have shown a small growth month on month since the beginning of this year, the activity level is fairly high, mainly due to the record low interest rates and an extension of the first-home buyers grant," she said.
"From other indicators, such as average days on market, units seem to be performing better than houses. This is the more affordable property type."
Credit: John Stapleton
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Thursday 9 July 2009

No bail for fraud charge AFL star, The Australian, 9 July, 2009.








No bail for fraud charge AFL star

Stapleton, John. The Australian [Canberra, A.C.T] 09 July 2009: 3.
Show highlighting
THE life of former star footballer with the Sydney Swans and high-profile coach Daryn Cresswell hit a new low yesterday when he was refused bail after appearing in Sydney's Manly Local Court over fraud charges.

THE life of former star footballer with the Sydney Swans and high-profile coach Daryn Cresswell hit a new low yesterday when he was refused bail after appearing in Sydney's Manly Local Court over fraud charges.
He is to be extradited to Queensland today to face the charges. The alleged real estate scam involved a friend of Cresswell, real estate agent Peter Richard Smith, and false loan application documents.
Police allege that in 2005 and 2006 Cresswell made two loan applications for $80,000 and $240,000 to the National Australia Bank using documentation obtained by Mr Smith, who was born on 30 April, 1958, and claimed to be the owner of a house at Third Avenue, Coolum Beach. The money was paid as a variable interest home loan to a company, Dardon Financial Services, of which Cresswell and his wife were directors.
The house at Coolum Beach is owned by a different Peter Richard Smith, born on 12 October, 1946, who was allegedly unaware loans were being taken out using his house as collateral.
Police allege the real estate agent Mr Smith, who assisted Cresswell, did not benefit from the deal and has since turned state witness. He and Cresswell are no longer friends.
At the time of the offences, Cresswell was assistant coach for the Brisbane Lions Football Club. He has previously acknowledged in the media being a problem gambler, and he was declared bankrupt in April.
In the dock yesterday, he appeared pale and distressed.
In media reports at the time of his bankruptcy, he blamed his chronic gambling habit for the loss of all his assets.
Cresswell presented himself to North Sydney Police yesterday to answer questions relating to six outstanding warrants, and was subsequently arrested. Queensland Police will accompany him to Maroochydore today.
In opposing bail, police argued that he posed a flight risk because he was highly likely to face a custodial sentence and had been attempting to avoid theconsequences of the false loans since they were taken out in 2005-06.
Credit: John Stapleton
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Monday 6 July 2009

Tobacco tax hike to make a million quite, The Australian, 6 July, 2009.

Tobacco tax hike to make a million quit

Stapleton, John. The Australian [Canberra, A.C.T] 06 July 2009: 5.
Public Health Association of Australia president and deputy chairman of the inquiry, Mike Daube, said the only people opposing the increase were tobacco companies. Since the dangers of smoking became known in the 1950s, almost a million Australians had died prematurely because they smoked, he said.

Full Text

THERE will be a million fewer smokers in Australia if the Rudd government adopts new recommendations that are believed to include a sharp increase in taxes, plain labelling, a ban on internet sales and media campaigns.
The aim to cut the number of smokers from 17 per cent of the population to 9 per cent -- from 3 million people to 2 million -- is outlined in the Preventative Health Taskforce's discussion paper, Making Smoking History.
The government is expected to progressively increase the price of cigarettes to $20 for a packet of 30 after receiving the taskforce's report last week.
The increase would raise the average price of a single cigarette from 45c to 67c and bring in an estimated $1.97 billion in extra taxes. The tax rate increases would be the first in a decade on tobacco.
A discussion paper prepared by the taskforce last year invited comment on "progressively increasing the tax on tobacco products to the level in places like Ireland, Scandinavia and the UK, and reaching $20 for a packet of 30".
Groups supporting the increase include the Cancer Council of Australia, the Heart Foundation, the Australian Medical Association, Australian Nursing Federation, Royal Australasian College of Physicians and a number of state governments.
A Newspoll survey last year showed 88 per cent of the population supported a tax hike on cigarettes.
Public Health Association of Australia president and deputy chairman of the inquiry, Mike Daube, said the only people opposing the increase were tobacco companies. Since the dangers of smoking became known in the 1950s, almost a million Australians had died prematurely because they smoked, he said.
"Every significant health organisation supports the increase," Professor Daube said. "A tax increase is popular and raises money. Why wouldn't any government do it?
"There's excellent research showing disadvantaged groups are more likely to quit with a price rise. Far from hitting the battlers, tax increases on cigarettes actually help them."
Kylie Lindorff, chairwoman of the Cancer Council's Tobacco Issues Committee, said the taskforce's recommendations included tax increases and a ban on internet sales.
"We ask the minister to implement these recommendations without delay," she said. "All the evidence tells us that a price increase is the single most effective means to encourage smokers to quit. Some 75 per cent of smokers have indicated that if the price went to $20, they would attempt to quit."
Ms Lindorff condemned the failure to close down the illegal cigarette trade, saying a price hike could fuel the trade and undermine the official efforts to reduce smoking.
The Australian has found that illegal cigarettes with no health warnings are being sold under the counter in Sydney for as little as $7 a packet.
Anne Jones, chief executive of the anti-smoking lobby group Ash, said by putting up cigarette taxes the government could pay for the whole national preventative health strategy. "Every health group and authority is supporting a tax increase on tobacco to the level of approximately $20 a packet. It is the most united policy position we have had in years."
Health Minister Nicola Roxon has refused to comment on speculation the government will increase the cigarette tax. A spokeswoman said there had been a range of proposals and "we will respond in due course".
Credit: John Stapleton
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Saturday 4 July 2009

Illegal smoke trade has plenty of puff, Weekend Australian, 4 July, 2009.








Illegal smoke trade has plenty of puff

Stapleton, John. Weekend Australian [Canberra, A.C.T] 04 July 2009: 7.
Show highlighting
Anne Jones, chief executive of anti-smoking lobby group ASH Australia, said selling cigarettes without health warnings was illegal in itself but on top of that the sellers of illegal cigarettes had evaded federal excise duty, which normally made up 69 per cent of the retail price, and had no doubt also failed to pay customs duties.

RIGHT in the middle of Australia's biggest city, you can walk into a shop and buy an illegal packet of under-the-counter cigarettes for $7.
Apart from being much cheaper than the mainstream brands, which sell for about $13 a packet, they don't have any of those confronting health warnings.
The ready availability of illegal cigarettes, which are understood to be in stock near many housing commission estates around thecountry, runs counter to a blizzard of government policies designed to discourage smoking. These include a NSW government ban on smoking in cars carrying children that started this week.
NSW will soon be the first state to introduce a ban on the display of cigarettes in shops, with other states to follow. On top of this, theRudd government is widely expected to announce a sharp increase in taxes on cigarettes following the Preventative Health Task Force's final submission to Health Minister Nicola Roxon this week. There has been no increase in the tax for a decade.
Anne Jones, chief executive of anti-smoking lobby group ASH Australia, said selling cigarettes without health warnings was illegal in itself but on top of that the sellers of illegal cigarettes had evaded federal excise duty, which normally made up 69 per cent of the retail price, and had no doubt also failed to pay customs duties.
Inner-Sydney resident Les Shearman has been trying for years to expose the illegal cigarette trade because of his concern about its impact on his friends' health. He believes the ready availability of cheap cigarettes is a major factor in their excessive smoking.
The Weekend Australian accompanied Mr Shearman while he purchased an illegal packet from Broadway Tobacco, located on one ofthe city's busiest thoroughfares. It took only seconds for him to purchase the pack from the woman behind the counter. No questions. No fuss.
"They are incredibly easy to get," he said.
While there are a number of illegal brands, the cigarettes on this occasion were called Magna. They come in a plain red packet with no details apart from the name. They can be bought on the internet for as little as $US12.50 ($15.65) a carton.
While an occasional smoker himself, Mr Shearman said the multi-million-dollar illegal tobacco trade, both for "chop chop" and filter cigarettes, was having a bad impact on many of his neighbours. "I noticed that a lot of my male friends who are exclusively smoking illegal tobacco were developing hacking coughs," he said. "The cough is indicative of the volume they are smoking. It is a real, racking smoker's cough.
"We are talking about a group of people without much cash, and cigarettes at half the price is very attractive."
Ms Jones said price was the single biggest issue affecting tobacco consumption.
"Children are the most price responsive of all," she said. "Illegal cigarettes are being sold to low-income people, who not only as smokers will die a decade earlier than the average citizen, but will spend the last 10 years of their life with a chronic disease burden, desperately sick and unhappy."
Ms Jones said she could not understand why the government was allowing the illegal trade to flourish so blatantly.
Simon Chapman from the University of Sydney's School of Public Health said the laws were so easy to flout because thegovernment was not taking its inspection duties seriously.
"If it is so easy for the likes of you and me to find a shop selling illegal cigarettes, why is it so difficult for the Australian Federal Police to find them?" Professor Chapman said. "The answer is they have just not got their eye on the ball."
Credit: John Stapleton
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