Australia: Lib Candidate against Tobacco Comp Funding

Source from:  The Australian  08/06/2013

A LIBERAL party candidate is opposed to his party taking donations from tobacco companies and will lobby against it if he enters federal parliament. 
 
Former Australian Medical Association president Dr Bill Glasson is the Liberal candidate for Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's Brisbane seat of Griffith.

During an ABC local radio debate, Dr Glasson was asked what he thought of the Liberals' policy of accepting political donations from tobacco firms.

"The reality is tobacco companies are acting within their rights," Dr Glasson said on Tuesday.

"But if I was in the party room, and I hope to be successful, then I will be lobbying against it.

"I think at the end of the day you have to be true to your word."

Dr Glasson said his mother had died of lung cancer and he had patients who were battling smoking-related cancer.

He described the Labor government's efforts to reduce smoking rates as laudable.

But its planned tax hike on cigarettes was being done more to prop up the federal budget than to address health issues, Dr Glasson added.

Labor stopped taking donations from tobacco groups nine years ago.

Asked about Dr Glasson's comments, Opposition Leader Tony Abbott attempted to turn the focus back to Mr Rudd for accepting tobacco company funding for a trip to Germany last year.

"Mr Rudd has accepted a personal donation from a tobacco company," Mr Abbott told reporters on the NSW central coast.

"Donors to the Liberal Party don't buy us, they don't buy our policy."

Mr Abbott said that as health minister in the Howard government his policies, including putting graphic warnings on cigarette packets, were partly responsible for a drop in smoking rates. Enditem