Carter David: Smoke-free Environments Amendment Bill — Referral to Health Committee Procedure In Committee 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Carter David: Smoke-free Environments Amendment Bill — Referral to Health Committee Procedure In Committee 
[Sitting date: 15 October 2003. Volume:612;Page:9215. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon DAVID CARTER (National) 
: 
 I start my discussion by agreeing wholeheartedly with the comments that have just been made by the Hon Richard Prebble. In my work of patiently seeking answers from this Government about how much money the Ministry of Health has actually spent on lobbying MPs I have come to suspect that the sum of $2.1 million is a gross understatement. I think that when further papers are finally provided we will find that a significantly larger amount of money has been corruptly spent on trying to lobby members of Parliament to support a member’s bill. I think that that is a disgrace and if Steve Chadwick as the promoter of this bill knew of that at the time she should state it tonight in this debate. If she did not know about it she should take the opportunity of clarifying that tonight in the Chamber. 
I want to move to another point and to a large number of amendments on which I intend to seek calls for discussion tonight. I attended a function in Christchurch last week for the Hospitality Association of New Zealand’s annual award dinner. About half a dozen MPs were at that function and I was staggered by the depth of ill feeling towards the Government expressed by people who came up to take their awards. The ill feeling was not only about this legislation but that was the focus specifically of their attention. It is hard enough in that industry to make a dollar. The competition is extreme and many many establishments will go out of business because of this stupid legislation. 
Let me discuss my very first amendment tabled in the Chamber tonight. If members look at clause 6B they will see that it repeals section 12 and substitutes a new section 12. I suggest that we vote tonight to add a new subsection to that section that will exempt the Little River Hotel on State Highway 75 at Little River. That is what the people of that establishment have asked me to do. I had written to that hotel last week and asked what the effect of this legislation would be on its business. The response was that it would probably put it out of business. Little River is a small community in the electorate of Banks Peninsula and I will take note of how Ruth Dyson votes. I will note whether she is prepared to hear the pleas of her own constituents. Little River has a local school of around 100 pupils. The school is now under pressure because Mr Mallard is about to rip the guts out of rural New Zealand by closing schools of that size. The other focus of that community is the Little River pub. I tell Ms Chadwick that I do not go there often but I suspect that probably 70 percent of its patrons smoke. No patron of that hotel is forced to be there on any evening. They are there for the camaraderie and friendship they develop in that establishment— 
David Benson-Pope 
: Camaraderie? 
Hon DAVID CARTER 
: That is right. Does the member not understand that word? It means friendship and that is what these people go for. It is a chance for them to socialise to have a beer and to enjoy a cigarette. Nobody forces them into that hotel but if that member tonight votes against my amendment he will threaten its very existence. 
We have another amendment. The Kaikanui Hotel is at 67 Williams Street Kaiapoi in the Waimakariri electorate of Clayton Cosgrove. Let us see tonight whether he is prepared to support the plea that has been made by the proprietors of the Kaikanui Hotel in Kaiapoi. That is a larger centre—not as small a locality as Little River—but again the people there know what has happened in New York and in many states in the United States where this legislation has been brought in. It has meant a dramatic decline in the revenue taken by hospitality establishments—and that threatens the very viability of the Kaikanui Hotel.