Fox MaramaMARAMA FOX (Co-Leader—Māori Party): Tēnā koe Mr Assistant Speaker. I agree with the previous speaker David Seymour. Companies that do mete out harm destruction and death on people who buy their products should be worried.As I was preparing for this second reading I came across these words—and if I might I am going to quote them—from the late Dame Whina Cooper: Take care of our children. Take care of what they hear take care of what they see take care of what they feel. For how the children grow so will the shape of Aotearoa." This woman in her 80th year gathered 60000 signatures and led a hīkoi of 1000 miles from Te Hāpua in the far north to Parliament. Te Roopuu o Matakite—those with the foresight—was launched at a hui at Māngere marae in early 1975 in response to the relentless alienation of Māori land. The diminutive Dame believed that it was time to unite Māori across iwi boundaries under the banner of "Not One More Acre". Her hīkoi encompassed overnight stays at 25 marae each one mobilising conversation and sparking commitment to the cause."Take care of our children." What does that mean? Forty years on from the land march we are still marching. We are marching for our mokopuna marching for them to survive another day. This bill the Smoke-free Environments (Tobacco Plain Packaging) Amendment Bill continues that hīkoi for a different kaupapa in a different setting but in the same vein as all the other marches that took place earlier this week. I have the same passion and energy for this bill as I do for fighting any cause that robs our people of land and life that erodes our spirit and that destroys our capacity to be strong healthy and alive.Just to be perfectly clear there is no safe level of tobacco use. Tobacco use causes many types of cancer including cancer of the lung larynx mouth oesophagus throat bladder kidney liver stomach pancreas colon rectum and cervix as well as acute leukaemia. Tobacco use is the leading cause of cancer and of death from cancer. People exposed to second-hand smoke have an increased risk of cancer through access to the many chemicals that damage our very DNA. Tobacco smoke contains many chemicals that are harmful to both smokers and non-smokers. Breathing even a little tobacco smoke can be harmful. Among the 250 known harmful chemicals in tobacco smoke at least 69 can cause cancer.So I come back to the kōrero "Take care of our children." My most significant qualification for this debate is that I am a mother of nine children—the most exquisite mokopuna you will ever see on the face of the earth. What we all know is that smoking has been found to harm nearly every bodily organ and to diminish a person's overall health.I may have overstepped when I personally attacked an industry baron who came to our shores to promote the use of tobacco. It was a diminishing conversation and I have apologised to those New Zealanders who took offence at my words such as "peddler of death" or "corporate executioner". I was angry and I take full responsibility for my words and the way that I spoke. But over the last week I have reflected on the reasons for that anger and they never stray far from home: "Take care of our children."A study last year by Dr Rob Young associate professor of medicine and molecular genetics at the University of Auckland sets it out in stark clarity. Again I quote: "Lung cancer in Māori is characterised by: Earlier age of diagnosis (6-8 yrs younger) despite comparable smoking exposure; … more aggressive cancer histology and greater susceptibility … to the effects of smoking; Two fold greater mortality …".This bill is one more step to give effect to Dame Tariana's vision of a smoke-free Aotearoa by 2025. It is one more step to support an educational campaign increasing our efforts to increase quit rates and be mindful of the risks of lung cancer. If there is one thing I know it is that people who quit smoking regardless of their age have substantial gains in life expectancy compared with those who continue to smoke.If we do not listen to our own successive Ministers of Health select committees professors of medical science and environmental health Dames advocates Māori activists economists doctors and nurses then perhaps we will listen to international experts. Over the last decade headlines in the international medical journal The Lancet have been consistently compelling. Here they are—this is what those international headlines have said—"Maori have the highest rate of lung cancer of all the populations in the 4 high income countries studied" "Tobacco control in NZ has failed Māori" "The country needs Māori to lead a new approach to cutting smoking rates" and "Māori are treated differently in the health system". I implore the Minister to ensure that Māori are at the heart of auahi kore initiatives. Take care of what they hear. Take care of what they see. Take care of what they feel.In the Health Committee commentary the advice is to be straight-up in our use of language to introduce the wording "quit smoking" and "have quit smoking". It is a move that I totally support. We must speak the way the people speak so that everyone understands. The committee also recommends that the cultural effects of smoking be included within the context for introducing plain packaging. I cannot help but think of the greater cultural framework into which this whole debate was kicked off. Smoking had not been a part of the Māori way of life. The first Pākehā to be seen smoking a pipe was Captain Cook. Not much later on sealers whalers traders and settlers would trade with tobacco and pipes as a form of koha and as a form of currency to purchase land. By the end of the 1840s the use of tobacco by Māori was widespread among adults and not unknown among children. It comes back to the land the whenua; the people tangata whenua; and most of all it comes back to our children our mokopuna.Fifteen years ago one of the Māori Party's founding co-leaders Pita Sharples was the champion featured on posters of the widespread campaign "It's about whānau" to promote smoking cessation. Last year the other founding co-leader Dame Tariana Turia was presented with the Luther L. Terry Award for Exemplary Leadership in Tobacco Control at an international conference in Abu Dhabi. The American Cancer Society selected Mrs Turia for her enduring commitment to the health of all New Zealanders and tireless pursuit of a smoke-free Aotearoa by 2025.Today our pursuit of the Smoke-free Environments (Tobacco Plain Packaging) Amendment Bill follows in their steps follows in the steps of many others before us and most of all sets out to create new footprints for a world free of tobacco harm. The true face of smoking is disease death and horror not the glamour and sophistication that the peddlers of the industry try to push. Tobacco control measures that eliminate smoking altogether will be the only effective way of reducing disparities. We stand in absolute support of this bill in rejection of the tragedy that smoking has inflicted and continues to inflict on Māori but most of all to preserve our slice of paradise for our children. For how the children grow so will the shape of Aotearoa."