Clark David: Customs and Excise (Tobacco Products—Budget Measures) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Clark David: Customs and Excise (Tobacco Products—Budget Measures) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
[Sitting date: 26 September 2012. Volume:684;Page:5720. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Dr DAVID CLARK (Labour—Dunedin North) 
: 
 I want to start by labelling this part of the Customs and Excise (Tobacco Products—Budget Measures) Amendment Bill as what it is: it is a cynical political move. It is a very very cynical political move. Part 2 of the bill is shameful. Government members should be embarrassed by this. We know they are embarrassed because they have not taken any calls. We have not heard a word out of the Minister in the chair all evening. We have not heard a word about this part of the bill. We saw no one attempt to get up to speak to it from the Government benches. They know that this is simply cynical politics and that it is difficult to defend. 
How do we know that it is cynical politics? Well we need look no further than the regulatory impact statement which was published in April 2012 in order for Ministers to consider this legislation. In April 2012 the advice was written and the policy that the Cabinet considered appears to have no mention—no mention at all as far as we can see—in the regulatory impact statement of this measure to target those who are dependent on welfare to feed their families and to go about their daily business. We know that this has been added on subsequently. It has been put in place to make sure that an extra kick is put in to distract from the wider impact of this bill. 
This is not atypical of the Government. We know that this is a pattern. We have seen it happening. We know that whenever bad news comes around there is more drug testing for beneficiaries there is compulsory early childhood education and there is a range of other measures which the Government has subsequently admitted it cannot actually put into place but it uses as a distraction. Here again we have a targeting measure for beneficiaries one that makes sure they will suffer the most. They will suffer the most. All of those who are smokers will suffer as a result of this legislation. All of them will face increased prices. But this Government is determined to make sure that those who are on hard times are kicked while they are down because it believes that that is what is necessary in order to change the world. 
Well we disagree. We on this side of the Chamber have a more optimistic view of human nature. We think people actually want jobs and if this Government had not lost so many jobs if it was not sending 50000 New Zealanders a year to Australia then actually people would have jobs and they would not be affected by this Draconian measure which will make it much harder for those on benefits than for anybody else to afford the substantial increases in tobacco prices that are proposed in this bill. 
Treasury in its regulatory impact statement recommends the revenue grab of $528 million which the Government conveniently wants to adopt because it is well aware that there is a hole in the books as a result of the worst economic record in 50 years which this Government has perpetrated. The regulatory impact statement says that “The Treasury favours a sequence of regular modest and well-signalled increases in tobacco excise. This is likely to contribute most to a long-term and sustainable strategy to reduce smoking rates.” There is a little bit of inconsistency with an earlier part of the advice but for the greater part this is good Treasury advice. The regulatory impact statement does say that “In taxing a group of consumers that are addicted and disproportionately drawn from Maori and lower-socio economic communities the Government should ensure that programmes to educate and support smokers to make successful quit attempts are adequately resourced well implemented and effectively designed and targeted to reach high-risk groups.” 
That is not what we see here in this bill. We do not see anything here going towards meeting the needs of those most affected. In this bill which is cynically targeted at those who are struggling the most we do not see any additional measures signalled—none whatsoever—to make sure that those groups that are targeted are given assistance to give up smoking which we all know and accept is so harmful. So that is why I say that this is a cynical political move. We have seen so much of it from this Government. It is very good at sideshows and distractions because it is very nervous. It is very nervous about what the polls are showing. The polls are showing that its poor economic record the scandals around the Dotcom affair the scandals in the ACC system the inability to tackle the big issues and the focus on tinkering are doing it no good—doing the Government no good whatsoever. That is why it is coming back to these cynical strategies which target and kick those who are down. 
The Treasury advice was to put additional measures to support those—