Mildura councillor Helen Healy asks staff to look into smoking ban in public places

Lighting up at footy matches, near children’s parks could be off-limits as council staff in northwest Victoria investigate ban on smoking.

Mildura council staff have been asked to look into whether smokers could be banned from lighting up in public places throughout the municipality. Picture: Glenn Milne

A Mildura councillor has asked whether smoking could be banned in all public places across the municipality.

The Heart Foundation recently revealed one in five people in northwest Victoria still smoke, making it the top hotspot both in the state and for all of regional Australia.

With 22.2 per cent of people smoking, the rate was more than double Melbourne’s inner east.

Mildura Deputy Mayor Helen Healy referenced the data at the most recent council meeting, asking council staff to look into whether a ban could be considered.

Cr Healy said the idea was inspired in part by a trip 10 years ago to the United States city of Santa Monica, which had implemented comprehensive bans that included beaches and parks.

She said she was motivated to raise the issue by the statistics and the impact on the health system.

“I know it probably seems extreme, and there might be questions of civil liberties and things like that, but I think it will be helping people to not smoke,” she said.

“It just means things like not lighting up at a football match where there’s a crowd, at public parks where there’s children and people who don’t smoke.”

Any policy change by the council wasn’t expected to be swift.

“At this stage, it’s really just asking council to look into the possibility of something like that,” Cr Healy said.

Mildura wouldn’t be the only Victorian council mulling fresh restrictions on smokers.

The City of Melbourne wants to outlaw smoking “throughout the majority of public spaces” over the next five years.

Melbourne is also considering banning smoking at council-run and council-permitted events by 2025.

A poll on The Mildura News Facebook page last year showed 75 per cent of respondents opposing a ban on outdoor smoking in regional Victoria.