NSW is on the verge of reopening the door for the tobacco industry to again sponsor horse, car and motorcycle racing events, the Cancer Council of NSW says.
The wording of a clause within the Public Health (Tobacco) Bill 2008 currently before state parliament would exempt the tobacco industry from a ban on sponsoring racing events in the state, the council said.
Tobacco sponsorship of all sporting events has been banned in NSW since 1995.
The new legislation was designed to help prevent people from taking up smoking and to addicted smokers to break the habit.
"We were absolutely astounded and appalled when we saw this particular clause in the bill," Cancer Council tobacco control manager Wendy Oakes said.
"To have a retrograde law which introduces sponsorship back into NSW we think is really a dreadful thing."
Ms Oakes said the Cancer Council raised its concerns with Health Minister John Della Bosca and Minister Assisting the Health Minister Tony Stewart prior to the bill passing the lower house on Wednesday.
A spokesman for Mr Stewart said preliminary legal advice indicated the concerns were groundless, however, further legal advice would be sought to make "doubly sure".
He said if there was a problem, the state government would rectify the situation.
But, Ms Oakes was adamant the clause should be removed regardless.
"We don't really care how it got in there, or why it's in there or whether it was a mistake," she said.
"We are very strongly asking the government to remove that clause.
"It's easy enough for them to do, if this is a mistake, like the government says it should be an easy process to amend the bill."
She said if the NSW government refused to remove the clause, the Cancer Council would talk to the commonwealth about making some provision under its Tobacco Advertising Provision Act.
Greens MP Lee Rhiannon said the only conclusion you could draw from the bill was that the NSW government was "under the thumb of racing and tobacco industries".
"In one puff the government has destroyed its own credibility in cleaning up the tobacco industry and in protecting public health," Ms Rhiannon said.
Stafford Saunders from ASH - Action on Smoking and Health - said the clause must be removed.
"The clause would open the door to a whole raft, a whole hornets' nest of possible tobacco promotion in all forms of racing, cars, motorbikes, horses, greyhounds," he said.
"There's nothing like it in any other state or territory and it's clearly not in the best interests of the people of NSW."
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