Open Letter to Julia Gillard for Australian University Campuses to go Smoke Free

Julia.Gillard.MP@aph.gov.au ( I sent this letter to Julia, Aust. federal minister for education, on Friday 9 October 2009 )

Hello Julia,

I am running a quit smoking pilot event at the moment,  with 4 Australia universities called Quitober 09 Challenge. the participating unis are Uni of Syd, Uni of Canberra, Uni of Southern Qld & Uni of Adelaide.

The results seem quite favourable for the pilot & we are hoping to run the event proper nationwide with all of the universities participating.

I am running the event in conjunction with the AUSA -  Australasian University Safety Association .

My concern is the fragmentation of the universities smoking policies & think it would be so much simpler and cost effective if a law could be passed to make all university campuses in Australia smoke-free at the same time.
Most unis seem concerned that if they go smoke free first that they will lose their overseas students to a non smokefree uni.

A great opportunity to roll out this policy would be for next October 2010.
This would also coincide with the APACT conference on the 6 th of October
http://www.apact2010.org/

This would show the world how progressive & coordinated in our thinking & actions as a government & country.And the policy could be coordinated with me & Michael Flannery from the AUSA.

This would really help in the promotion of Quitober '10 Challenge for the universities but also in the community where we could get all employers to participate & support their staff to quit smoking during Quitober.

If you are interested in hearing more  I can always pop in for a chat at any time.

And as usual, any feedback much appreciated.

Regards, 
 
  Des Sherlock
    Quitober CEO - Founder