McClay Todd: Customs and Excise (Tobacco Products—Budget Measures) Amendment Bill; and Bills Therefrom — Third Readings 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
McClay Todd: Customs and Excise (Tobacco Products—Budget Measures) Amendment Bill; and Bills Therefrom — Third Readings 
[Sitting date: 16 October 2012. Volume:684;Page:5833. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
TODD McCLAY (National—Rotorua) 
: 
 It is a pleasure to rise and speak on the legislation arising from the Customs and Excise (Tobacco Products—Budget Measures) Amendment Bill because they are extremely important pieces of legislation and I am glad to hear that parties on all sides of the House will be supporting them. I am not going to take issue with any particular part that I may think could be made a little bit better. I am going to celebrate the great work that this Government has done under a very effective Minister over 4 years and to look at what realistically these changes that have been brought through in this legislation will do. 
I think it is clear to everybody in New Zealand—and if not they are deniers—that smoking is the leading preventable cause of early death. We have groups within society that are affected to a much greater degree than some others. I particularly want to recognise the work that Minister Turia has put in to this House over the last 4 years to look at changing the disproportionate overrepresentation of Maori and young Maori in smoking statistics. That is harm that can be avoided and all members of this House rather than focusing on what else could be or should be done or how they would do it if they were still in Government should actually be focusing on the achievements that have been brought through in these pieces of legislation. 
Very clearly this legislation will do one thing and one thing alone: it will increase the cost of tobacco by 10 percent per year each year for 4 years. At the end of that period of time cigarettes will be close to $20 per packet. That is $1 per cigarette. For our young New Zealanders I believe that this is one of the most important things that we can do to put smoking out of their reach. If we think about when some of us grew up when the price was so much less cigarettes would be shared freely around the place. I encourage you Mr Speaker or any other member of this House to go out to a school and walk around asking kids in the playground for $1—say “Can I have $1? Give me $1.”—and I guarantee you will not come away with very many dollars. But what this equates to was years ago “Can I have a cigarette?” was seen to be asking for something not of any value or any great cost. So I say to the Minister that these changes she is bringing into effect are going to have the biggest positive effect upon young people’s health by stopping them from starting smoking. I will come to what we are doing around helping people to stop to support them but stopping young people from starting smoking is the very best gift we can give them in so far as these pieces of legislation are concerned. 
Statistically we know that a 10 percent increase in the price of tobacco equates to a 4 percent decrease in consumption and therefore with this legislation over the next few years we estimate that there will be about a 16 percent decrease in consumption. What that means is fewer people smoking so it is not just that some will smoke less but fewer people will smoke. Fewer will start smoking and many more people will give up. 
It is important that in doing this we continue to support those who are challenged who are addicted to this drug and the harm that it does them. The Government—I am very proud to say—in the Budget in 2012 put in $20 million extra to assist pathways towards a smoke-free New Zealand by 2025. This is on top of funding that was put in by previous Governments. Indeed Mr Speaker what I can say to you is that we are making these increases but they are in addition to annual inflation-indexed increases in excise. They follow a 40 percent increase in the price of tobacco since 2010. So our record on this when it comes to smoking is clear. 
Each year 4500 to 5000 New Zealanders die due to smoking or exposure to second-hand smoke and that is 4500 to 5000 deaths that can be avoided and I believe that this legislation will help in the future to reduce that number. About 650000 New Zealanders smoke and we know again through surveying that the majority of people who smoke—the vast majority of people who smoke—wish they had never started and want to find a way to stop. I recognise that it is not easy but it can be done and there are many members of this House who are able to attest to that. 
I want to just briefly touch on some of the things as a Government we have done previously to decrease smoking as it stands. There has been a 40 percent increase in the excise price since April 2010. We have adopted Better Help for Smokers to Quit which is one of our six priorities in the health sector. We now know what has happened under Tony Ryall is that 89 percent of people who go to hospital or who visit their doctors are asked about giving up smoking and are offered support. That is up from 0 percent because this was not a target and did not happen before. In the 2011 calendar year 129000 patients received advice on how to quit and support from their general practitioners. One of the most important things that can happen is having your general practitioner or health professional ask you: “Do you know smoking is not good for you?” and knowing how you can stop. We have increased fines for those who sell tobacco to minors from $2000 to $5000 for an individual and to $10000 for a body corporate. We have banned smoking in prisons. A jump of 50 percent in calls to Quitline has resulted in significant increases in funding from higher tobacco taxes. We have increased the uptake—82 percent in those 18 months—of people who are looking for nicotine replacement gums and patches. We have included tablets that you can take to help you reduce smoking. They are now freely available from the health service. 
I want to finish here with one statistic that I think is fantastic. In 1999 15.6 percent of school-age students smoked. That is not the fantastic part. In 2011 that number had dropped to 4.1 percent. That is a wonderful decrease. There are so many more young New Zealanders whose lives will be longer and healthier. But I set a challenge to this House: 4.1 percent of school-age children smoking is still far too high. We need to work collectively together to find ways to reduce that number and to support those who smoke to not smoke. 
I commend the Minister for this legislation and I thank the Finance and Expenditure Committee for its work. I commend the legislation to the House. Thank you.