Jump to full article: Sydney Morning Herald (au), 2008-10-30
Author: Andrew Clennell
Intro: NATHAN REES has been dubbed the key man behind what was criticised as a soft approach by the former Carr government to introducing bans on smoking in hotels.
The recently retired head of the Australian Hotels Association, John Thorpe, dropped the bombshell at a farewell celebration in his honour, thanking the Premier for being an architect of the controversial delay in a full smoking ban in hotels.
Sources told the Herald Mr Thorpe said at the function on Tuesday that of all those who had helped him in government, the one person he was most grateful to was a policy adviser to the former health minister Craig Knowles who had now become the Premier. Mr Rees was heavily involved in the policy decision announced by Mr Carr which resulted in a ban in only half the indoor space of hotels in 2005, and a quarter of hotels' indoor space in 2006.
Even the full ban in July last year was controversial because less than a quarter of "outdoor" areas has to be outdoors to allow people to smoke there.
Mr Thorpe confirmed his comments, made to an audience of 600, to the Herald and said Mr Rees supported hotels with the staged ban and had gone against the wishes of the Cancer Institute head, Jim Bishop, who wanted to see a full ban immediately introduced in hotels.
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