Lees-Galloway Iain: Smoke-free Environments (Tobacco Plain Packaging) Amendment Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeLees-Galloway Iain: Smoke-free Environments (Tobacco Plain Packaging) Amendment Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 11 February 2014. Volume:696;Page:15797. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]IAIN LEES-GALLOWAY (Labour—Palmerston North): It is a great pleasure to rise to speak in favour of the Smoke-free Environments (Tobacco Plain Packaging) Amendment Bill. Labour has undoubtedly the longest and most consistent track record of any parliamentary party for supporting measures that reduce the harm caused by tobacco. It goes right back of course to 1989-90 when the Smoke-free Environments Act the Act that this bill amends was first passed by the Labour Government under the then health Minister Helen Clark. Subsequent to that we have made a number of amendments to the Smoke-free Environments Act—removing smoking from bars and restaurants and removing smoking from the workplace. It is fair to say that at times the debate has been rigorous and many politicians have found themselves unable to support these measures but Labour has always driven the agenda to reduce the harm caused by tobacco. This is the role I think of progressive parties because progressive parties do want to effect positive change for the people whom they represent and often conservative parties find that change difficult to grasp. But what we find of course is that with the passing of time those things that seemed like they were going to bring about the end of the world just become normal practice and everybody accepts that indeed it was the right thing to do at the time.Labour has a very proud history of being on the right side of the tobacco debate. That is because our interests lie in representing the people of New Zealand. Our interests lie in doing the right thing for our citizens. Our interests certainly do not lie with the tobacco industry. The tobacco industry wails and cries every time a measure like this is implemented and the more it wails the more I am convinced that we are doing the right thing. So it is outstanding that the vast majority of parties this evening will be supporting this first reading of the Smoke-free Environments (Tobacco Plain Packaging) Amendment Bill.What it seeks to do is to get rid of the last bastion of tobacco advertising. We got rid of most advertising back when the Smoke-free Environments Act was first passed but the packaging has been the last opportunity that the tobacco industry has had to push its product. We made a significant step forward during the last term of Parliament when we got rid of the tobacco displays and now we are pushing the last boundary of tobacco advertising by getting rid of this branding and packaging. There is no reason for branding to be used to differentiate cigarettes because tobacco is tobacco is tobacco. It does not matter what you wrap it up in—it kills. Five thousand people are killed every year as a result of tobacco-related diseases. It kills around half its users. That is not a normal product that ought to be treated normally like any other consumable. It does not belong in dairies next to the bread and the milk and the lollies. And it does not deserve to have branding designed to entice young people to use this lethal product.We support this legislation but we are a little bit concerned about one aspect of it in particular and that is that the commencement of this legislation is handed over to an Order in Council. Effectively the Government gets to decide when this legislation comes into force. The reason for that of course is concerns around being sued by the tobacco industry as a result of a potential breach of trade agreements. The real concern is that the Trans-Pacific Partnership will foist upon New Zealand rules and regulationsthat stop us from doing exactly this which is to legislate in the best interests of the public health of New Zealanders. We must be vigilant. We must be vigilant and ensure that any trade agreements we sign up to do not allow us to fall into that trap. We are watching Australia closely but I want New Zealanders to understand that the agreement that Australia has with Hong Kong was poorly drafted in this area and left Australia exposed to the type of litigation that it is facing. New Zealand’s trade agreements generally speaking have avoided that and we need to ensure that should the Trans-Pacific Partnership go ahead it avoids this as well.That is why we are asking the Government to be transparent about the Trans-Pacific Partnership. That is why we are asking that when the text is finalised it be published so that New Zealanders can see what is in it before the National Government signs us up to it. We need to know whether the Trans-Pacific Partnership will have any bearing on the implementation of this legislation and we on this side of the House are concerned that the reason the Government does not want this legislation to be implemented as soon as it is passed by Parliament and instead is handing that right over to itself the Government is that it wants to keep in the back pocket the opportunity not to enforce this legislation in the event that it sells off to American interests that are pushing their agenda through the Trans-Pacific Partnership our right—our sovereign right—to legislate in the interests of the public health of New Zealanders.That would be a very unfortunate consequence indeed because it is clear that this measure has broad support in Parliament. It has broad support out in the public as well. New Zealand is a sovereign nation that ought to be able to say that we do not accept that 5000 of our citizens are killed every year by tobacco and that we do not accept that the tobacco industry has the right to push its product on to youngsters to try to get them hooked at an early age so that when they do make the decision that they want not to smoke any more they are addicted to nicotine and unable to get away from the habit. We do not want the tobacco industry to be able to do that and we do not want to give up our right to regulate in the interests of New Zealanders. But with that one concern aside we do support this legislation.It is the right thing to do and we congratulate the Minister Tariana Turia on the work she has done in advancing the cause of tobacco control while she has been a Minister in this Government. There is no doubt to those of us on this side of the House that in the absence of Tariana Turia the progress that has been made over the last 5 years would simply not have happened. We would have probably rested on our laurels allowing only the advances that the Labour Government had driven to set in place and we would have had to wait for another progressive Government to come in and continue the work. It is great that we have not lost those 5 years and we congratulate Tariana Turia on those efforts.This is just another step in a long line of measures that have over the last three decades moved us towards a smoke-free future but now we have the absolute goal that we want New Zealand to be smoke-free by 2025. I think that this is a very positive measure that will over time have the effect of reducing the number of young people who take up smoking so they do not then have to have the lifetime battle of trying to get off nicotine and have to save themselves from the damage done by tobacco. It is not the silver bullet. We will not see instant results but this is a positive measure towards making New Zealand smoke-free and preventing awful diseases that take life and cause enormous cost to the health system. We support this bill.