Coddington Deborah: Smoke-free Environments Amendment Bill — Procedure Referral to Health Committee In Committee Speaker Recalled In Committee Speaker Recalled  Speaker Recalled In Committee Procedure 
Coddington Deborah: 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:9987] 
DEBORAH CODDINGTON (ACT) 
: 
 Speaking to clause 8A I would like the member in the chair to take a call to explain to us what would happen in the case of a duty-free shop. If I go through the enforcement regulations that the Government will be putting on to retailers—breaching their property rights—I can see nothing that relates to a duty-free shop. We all go into duty-free shops and we see stand after stand of cigarettes and alcohol—all those terrible things that this Government wants to save and protect us from. The bill does not exclude duty-free shops at all. They will be caught. Duty-free shops will not be able to have any “tobacco product exposed for sale … visible from outside the place;”. What is “the place”? Is “the place” the whole airport terminal or is it the actual area where duty-free goods are being sold or is it the international terminal? What is it? It is not explained in the bill. That will just lead to endless court cases and case law and to the courts trying to interpret what the Government has written really badly. 
If one moves further down the clause one sees that unless the place of business is a tobacconist shop not more than 100 tobacco packages are allowed to be exposed for sale at any point of sale and not more than 40 tobacco cartons can be exposed for sale at any point of sale. Who will compensate the supermarkets for the huge expense they will be put to when this legislation comes into force? Who will compensate them for this Government breaching their property rights and forcing them to change all their stands so that they comply with this stupid inane legislation which will not do anything to protect people’s health or to lift the health of this country? If this Government were really serious about doing that it would ban smoking and cigarettes altogether. Instead something like 17 part-time smoke police or enforcement officers or whatever they are will be trying to enforce legislation that is totally unenforceable. Who pays the rent of these businesses? Who pays the wages the resource consents the rates? It is not this Government. Owners pay them because the businesses are their property. So what right does the State have to go in and enforce all this legislation and all these little rules on them? 
The Hon Peter Dunne talked about this Government being an expert on ventilation. It is also an expert on signwriting it seems. I cannot believe that grown-ups actually drafted this law. Will people be running around with little em rulers checking that the signwriting complies with the law? What will happen to businesses if they do not comply? What will happen if the rectangular border of a sign is “wider than an upper case letter ‘i’ in the point size used for the words;”? The word “Kills” has to be centred below the word “Smoking”. Would the Minister please explain to this Committee what on earth that does for public health? It does nothing for public health. It is just about control compliance costs and forcing the Government’s nanny-knows-best bossy-boots philosophy on all the small retailers around the country. 
If the Government wants to enforce those laws the onus to obey them should be put on the people who break them. If the age for people to be able to buy cigarettes is 18 why force the penalties on to the retailers? Why not put the responsibility on to the people who break the law by buying cigarettes? Why is the Government putting all the penalties on to the retailers? 
I can see that the member in the chair is not taking any notice. Obviously she does not care about duty-free shops and places because they are not mentioned in the bill. Are they exempt or will they have to comply? If they do have to comply how on earth will they do that?