Catchpole Brent: Smoke-free Environments Amendment Bill — Procedure Referral to Health Committee In Committee Speaker Recalled In Committee Speaker Recalled  Speaker Recalled In Committee Procedure 
Catchpole Brent: Smoke-free Environments Amendment Bill — Procedure Referral to Health Committee In Committee Speaker Recalled In Committee Speaker Recalled  Speaker Recalled In Committee Procedure 
[Volume:613;Page:9981] 
BRENT CATCHPOLE (NZ First) 
: 
 Part 3 has within it another Part 2A which is an interesting way of constructing this bill. It is entitled “Powers of enforcement officers”. Those enforcement officers are allowed to go on to the premises of places where there is a restriction on smoking. I would like to point out that a lot of Returned Services Association members are very upset with this bill. When they went to war and into battle they were given cigarettes to calm them down. Those fighting men were addicted not from their own choice but because they were told to smoke. Now we are turning round and trying to tell them to stop smoking or they will not be able to go and visit their old friends in Returned Services Association clubs. 
 I have talked to Returned Services Association members around the country. Last Saturday I was at the Armistice Day celebrations in Papakura and went back to the Papakura Returned Services Association and talked to members. It became clear that the associations did not want to be singled out as exemptions on their own. They wanted to be recognised with other clubs to have the choice of whether to have smoking in their establishments. With these powers of enforcement the association is now forced to open its rooms to the enforcement officers who will make sure there is no smoking in their clubs. 
New section 30AA in clause 9 refers to supplying tobacco products or herbal smoking. I wonder whether the Greens are particularly keen on that one. I think they would like to see herbal smoking a lot broader— 
Rodney Hide 
: They want to make it compulsory! 
BRENT CATCHPOLE 
: Compulsory now—well there we go! The reference to herbal smoking is an issue that the Greens would be very very upset about and I am surprised they are supporting this bill which wants to have smoking banned in bars clubs and public places because that means they will not be able to partake of their herbal medicines. Herbal products for smoking are banned and the supply is also restricted so they would need to be careful. 
This bill is nothing more than an abuse of the workers. They no longer have the choice. We have considerable restrictions in Part 3 with the supply of tobacco—restrictions on what people can smoke and where they can partake of smoking. I find it disappointing that all clubs which include the Returned Services Association were not given the choice to decide themselves whether they would allow their members to smoke. Clubs have to open up their premises to any enforcement officer who wants to walk in off the street to check whether they have set aside a small room out the back and whether when it is a freezing-cold night their members have snuck in a back room to smoke indoors. That is a hardship particularly on members of the clubs. After all they are club members and these clubs want to have the option to decide for themselves whether they will be smoking or non-smoking. It is disappointing that this Government does not care about those people particularly those from the Returned Services Association who went to war and fought for this country. Now they are being told that they are not allowed to make that choice themselves. I think that it is despicable on the part of this Government to enforce a restriction on those men and women who went to war and fought for this country. It is a despicable way to treat those members.