Blue Jackie: Inquiries — Inquiry into the Tobacco Industry in Aotearoa and the Consequences of Tobacco Use for Maori —Report of Maori Affairs Committee 
Blue Jackie: Inquiries — Inquiry into the Tobacco Industry in Aotearoa and the Consequences of Tobacco Use for Maori —Report of Maori Affairs Committee 
[Volume:669;Page:15958] 
Dr JACKIE BLUE (National) 
: 
 I too congratulate the Maori Affairs Committee on its comprehensive and profound report. I will add to other comments made by previous speakers about smoking. I used to smoke. I started smoking when I was 16 years of age and I stopped when I was 30. I puffed away while I was a medical student and I puffed away while I was a house surgeon. Mostly I puffed away in secret in front of people who were dying of lung cancer and people who had emphysema. Smoking is a disgusting habit and it is a terrible terrible addiction. I am very pleased that the Government is putting $57 million into tobacco cessation products because basically people who smoke are addicts and they need help getting off their addiction which is tobacco. 
Tobacco smoking is the leading cause of preventable death in New Zealand. It is directly linked to 5000 deaths each year. Four hundred of these deaths are attributed to second-hand smoke. On average non-smokers live 15 years longer than long-term smokers. Thirteen New Zealanders die every day from smoking; it is an astonishing statistic. Tobacco use is linked to many diseases: lung cancer heart disease stroke chronic obstructive pulmonary disease such as emphysema or chronic bronchitis and other cancers such as cancer of the mouth pharynx and oesophagus. 
The social costs of smoking are very difficult to estimate but up to 62000 life years are lost to tobacco-related premature death which is just tragic and 19000 quality-adjusted life years are lost to tobacco-related illnesses. The cost is profound personally socially and to the country. It is estimated by the Ministry of Health that of our total health budget of about $12 billion about $2 billion can be attributed to the cost to the health system of smoking. 
For Maori the impact of tobacco is significant and quite disproportionate. For the period 2000 to 2004 lung cancers were responsible for over 31 percent of Maori cancer deaths compared with 17 percent for non-Maori cancer deaths. Cardiovascular disease death rates were two times higher for Maori than non-Maori during the same period. Deaths due to respiratory disease were three times more frequent in Maori than non-Maori. 
Smoking and tobacco use in New Zealand is a focus for the Government. One of the six current health targets is to provide “Better help for smokers to quit”. The targets for the current year state: “80 percent of hospitalised smokers will be provided with advice and help to quit by July 2010; 90 percent by July 2011; and 95 percent by July 2012.” Similar targets for primary care will also be introduced from this year on. 
We heard an astonishing figure at the select committee: it takes about 14 attempts for one person to give up smoking. That is a huge number of attempts. With tobacco cessation products that figure goes down by half or possibly more. It is a terribly hard addiction to break. The triggers include tackling people in hospital while they are a captive audience in an in-patient setting asking about their smoking habits and giving them advice. Even though they may not take that advice it is just one trigger or prompt to add on to the other prompts. Eventually I am sure that person will give up. Every bit helps and tackling smokers while they are hospitalised is one way to get to smokers to try to convince them that it is a good idea to stop and to give them the help they need. As I said it is a terrible addiction. There are now many varieties of tobacco cessation products. There are patches gum drugs and chemical-type medicines that can be taken. They all work in different ways to help break the addiction cycle. 
Early this year the Government increased the excise tax on tobacco in an effort to reduce the number of smokers and to dissuade young people from starting to smoke and that is a step in the right direction. All told the excise has gone up almost 33 percent or it will do by the time it is implemented in the next few years. 
The report that the Maori Affairs Committee came out with primarily looks at innovative changes to New Zealand’s tobacco control programme. It also sets out the broad steps we need to take to achieve the ultimate goal of being a smoke-free New Zealand by 2025. I congratulate the Maori Affairs Committee on this report. Thank you.