Wall Louisa: Customs and Excise (Tobacco Products—Budget Measures) Amendment Bill — First Reading Second Reading In Committee Third ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeWall Louisa: Customs and Excise (Tobacco Products—Budget Measures) Amendment Bill — First Reading Second Reading In Committee Third Reading[Sitting date: 26 May 2016. Volume:714;Page:11431. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]LOUISA WALL (Labour—Manurewa): Talofa lava. It is my pleasure to speak on this the Customs and Excise (Tobacco Products—Budget Measures) Amendment Bill.I actually want to start with a quote. It is from a submission from the Cancer Society Social and Behavioural Research Unit at the University of Otago to the Finance and Expenditure Committee on the Budget Policy Statement 2016. I read: “Evidence for the effectiveness of tobacco excise tax and price policies is overwhelming; increased costs of tobacco to consumers are strongly associated with declining smoking prevalence and reduced tobacco consumption. Young people tend to be more price sensitive compared with adults”. It goes on to say: “Lower socioeconomic groups and Māori have disproportionately higher smoking rates in NZ and have shown less rapid declines in smoking prevalence than other population groups. There is strong evidence that low-income groups within high-income countries show greater price sensitivity. Recent evidence suggests that smokers from Māori and Pacific Island communities are more responsive to tax increases than smokers of other ethnicities. This suggests that further tobacco excise tax increases could continue to reduce health inequalities in NZ.” The reason I read that out is that actually that is why this legislation is being proposed today.I would also like to highlight the relevance to young people and particularly to young Māori and young Māori women. I have the Māori Smoking and Tobacco Use 2011 summary from the Ministry of Health and in the 15- to 19-year-old age group there is a 14.4 percent rate of smoking for non-Māori males; for Māori males it is 29.2 percent. For non-Māori females the rate is 13.1 percent; for Māori females it is 47.1 percent. In the 20- to 24-year-old age group the rate for non-Māori males is 24.7 percent; for Māori males it is 57.3 percent. For non-Māori females it is 24.5 percent but for Māori females the smoking rate is 60.8 percent. So the relevance of this particular legislation to our Māori communities is incredible.I also want to highlight that Māori women—this is from the report that the Māori Affairs Committee prepared Inquiry into the tobacco industry in Aotearoa and the consequences of tobacco use for Māori—“suffer significantly from smoking as is evidenced by their having one of the highest mortality rates for lung cancer in the world and distressingly high levels of other diseases associated with smoking such as diabetes complications cardiovascular disease breast cancer and cervical cancer. We are even more concerned about this demographic because of the significant impact of smoking on unborn and young children. While it is not the only cause we were told that up to 46 percent of Sudden Unexplained Death in Infancy is attributable to smoking”. In New Zealand 40 babies die every year. So 46 percent of those babies are Māori babies. For our communities out there who question why this piece of legislation is going through the House that is why—the statistics the evidence speaks for itself.I would like to highlight however that there are other implications for Māori of the proposed legislation. It was really interesting to read the Minister’s press release because what he does articulate is that 15 percent of New Zealanders smoke. That is 550000 people. But for Māori and Pacific people those rates are a lot higher: 35 percent of Māori smoke and 22.4 percent of Pacific people smoke. If you break that down even more of the 550000 people who smoke that is 155000 Māori who smoke and 55000 Pacific people who smoke. I think the relevance to our communities for me is also in the amount of tax that will be collected through this proposed legislation. We are anticipating that $425 million will result from this increased tax over this 4-year period. So my proposition to the Minister and to the House is that if that is the case $119 million of that tax intake should be used explicitly on Māori programmes and $42.5 million should be used on Pacific programmes.I think it is relevant again to bring up the Māori Affairs Committee report because recommendation No. 26 of that report was really clear and I will read it: “that the Wai 844 claim lodged with the Waitangi Tribunal which asks for ‘funding for Māori health initiatives to eliminate or reduce smoking among Māori’ be progressed as soon as practicable.” I have actually written to the Waitangi Tribunal and asked it for the status of that Wai claim because in the Government’s response this Wai claim has not been referred to the Government and it cannot be referred to the Government until the Waitangi Tribunal actually goes through the process of hearing submissions. But it is my contention that if Māori are so detrimentally affected that if we are really clear about our rates of smoking and the anticipated amount of money coming out of our communities—we know that it is going to be $425 million—then I restate again: $119 million of that tax revenue should be used to fulfil the recommendation by the Māori Affairs Committee.I would also like to highlight another issue from that inquiry by the Māori Affairs Committee and it is about plain packaging. The relevance of plain packaging speaks to our commitment to reducing the smoking rates of young people because I have looked at the evidence for plain packaging and it was actually overwhelming. Cancer Council Australia provided the most succinct evidence because as we all know Australia remains the only country in the world that has plain packaging legislation and that has implemented that legislation. This is why it did that: because plain packaging provides an important role in discouraging young people from trying cigarettes in the first place.What a lot of people do not know is that 66 percent of young people in New Zealand try tobacco—and I put my hand up; I have smoked once in my life and it was through peer pressure—66 percent of young New Zealanders try tobacco. So anything that will reduce the numbers even attempting tobacco use needs to be promoted because what we do know is that 50 percent of those young people who try tobacco or smoke will smoke for 40 years. They become addicted to it almost immediately. In our Māori communities I think that more like 100 percent of us try which is why for Māori women our rates of smoking are over 50 percent. We are the perfect statistical example of that phenomenon.The other reason plain packaging needs to be brought in is that throughout the evidence young people said themselves that plain packaging creates negative perceptions and feelings about smoking. They actually want to hide those packets and they smoke less around others and it increases their ability to think about quitting; that was in 50 percent of the participants. For Māori that would be incredibly relevant because if 100 percent of us try and 50 percent of us then smoke but if plain packaging can then reduce our consumption by another 25 percent then I think that it is worth the Government looking at plain packaging as another part of this progressive piece of legislation that actually does want to meet the 2025 target which is to ensure that right across the board our different groups of New Zealanders—Pākehā Māori Pacific Asian—less than 5 percent of our population smokes. I think that is the challenge as we move into the future but this is a fantastic start.I commend the Minister I commend Action on Smoking and Health and I commend all those groups out there that are advocating for us to address this issue because it cannot be tolerated any more. Five thousand of us dying is unacceptable and it is preventable. Thank you.