Flavell Te Ururoa: Smoke-free Environments (Controls and Enforcement) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Flavell Te Ururoa: Smoke-free Environments (Controls and Enforcement) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:669;Page:16226] 
TE URUROA FLAVELL (Maori Party—Waiariki) 
: 
 Kia ora ano tatou katoa. I start by thanking all colleagues for their acknowledgment of the Hon Tariana Turia and Hone Harawira for their part in presenting the Smoke-free Environments (Controls and Enforcement) Amendment Bill to the House. Unfortunately they are not here so I will take all of their accolades! That aside members know that they have done a lot of work. But let me tell members that although they are getting all the accolades some of us were doing the real hard work in behind the—ha ha I am just joking! They have been working hard at things. It will be no secret to the House that tobacco control and things around tobacco have been a key priority for the Maori Party. Thankfully on the back of the efforts of both Tariana and Hone we think that we have made some major traction. Of course other parties have contributed as has been acknowledged in the House tonight.  
The party’s tobacco campaign to rid our shores of tobacco harm has resulted in some real landmark milestones which include as some have already mentioned Tariana’s initiative to increase tobacco tax Hone’s initiating of an inquiry by the Maori Affairs Committee of Parliament into Maori-related tobacco death and the introduction of this legislation to ban retail displays and keep tobacco out of sight and out of mind. We are making I think significant progress and the momentum we hope will be continued. The past 12 months have been the most rapid in my view as a non-smoker in terms of history-making around tobacco control. So I stand as someone who feels pretty good about the progress we have made as a party and as a Parliament over this space and time over the last 2 years with the National Government. 
I acknowledge the work that Tariana has done and indeed the whole Parliament which passed her legislation to increase tobacco excise with an overwhelming cross-party majority of 118 votes to four. The House will recall some 6 or 8 months ago that the excise tax increases were really significant. First off we equalised the tax on loose tobacco to match tailor-made cigarettes. That was about ensuring that no matter what type of tobacco was smoked the smoker would face the same incentive to quit. Then we raised the tax on all tobacco products by 10 percent and for the price of roll-your-own tobacco that had the effect of an immediate increase of more than 25 percent. But that was not all; the legislation passed that night included another 10-percent rise in January 2011 and then another 10 percent in 2012.  
I will speak on the work that Hone Harawira has been doing. He had the original idea for the Maori Affairs Committee to hold an inquiry into the tobacco industry in Aotearoa and the consequences of tobacco use for Maori. It was an initiative that he took up with a lot of vigour. It was pleasing to see the way that the Maori Affairs Committee—maybe a little bit reluctantly at the start but certainly once it gathered momentum—could see from the evidence that this was an honourable take to take up. It did so and that resulted in the debate on Wednesday of this week about that topic. Just over a year ago the select committee announced it would carry out that inquiry into the tobacco industry and the consequences of tobacco use for Maori. In March 2010 our co-leader and Associate Minister of Health Tariana initiated public consultation on a proposal to ban tobacco displays in retail outlets. I am sure that most of the House is aware of many of the statistics although maybe not able to quote them off the top of the head right now. We found in the information from that consultation process and some information given to us that tobacco is the largest single cause of preventable death in New Zealand and that an estimated 5000 people die very early well before time. There were major ramifications for whanau in losing elders and parents. The most critical fact that motivates all of us to be here today is that 45 percent of Maori aged between 15 and 64 are current smokers one in two long-term smokers will die of smoking-related diseases and those who die lose on average 15 years of life. None of those statements are new but we offer no apology in repeating them tonight as we look at this issue.  
We are still losing generations of our people who are dying in middle age. Even more tragic is the fact that up to 46 percent of Maori sudden unexplained deaths in infancy are attributed to smoking.  
We welcome the initiative championed in this bill by our co-leader Tariana. It will make tobacco less visible and attractive by reducing the tobacco marketing and advertising that still exists. It will hopefully make tobacco less accessible by providing for better measures to prevent sales to children and young people under the age of 18. These measures will not only aid in preventing young people from starting to smoke but help those trying to quit. There is actually a tragic history to the use of tobacco in Aotearoa and it goes back to a time for our people before the Treaty of Waitangi. In terms of some of the accounts in my area of the Bay of Plenty from when the Treaty was taken around—having done some research around this—eight pounds of tobacco and twelve pipes were taken to chiefs in Opotiki; five fancy pipes and half a pound of tobacco to Te Kaha; two fancy pipes and half a pound of tobacco to Torere; and eleven fancy pipes and five pounds of tobacco to Whakatane. Hopefully today we take on face to face some of that background history which will overturn itself at least with the movement forward of this particular bill.  
In closing I say that Aotearoa’s approach to tackling tobacco harm has been turned up another notch we hope because of the Maori Party’s efforts through of course working with the National Government and with the support of the other parties in general across the floor. These are all efforts to save and preserve the precious lives of people across the country. If that is the motivation then it cannot but be supported as we look towards positive influences for not only our young people but certainly those who are older in age. Kia ora tatou.