Henare Tau: Customs and Excise (Tobacco Products—Budget Measures) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Henare Tau: Customs and Excise (Tobacco Products—Budget Measures) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Sitting date: 24 May 2012. Volume:680;Page:2558. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon TAU HENARE (National) 
: 
 As a smoker a non-smoker a smoker a non-smoker and unfortunately a smoker—but tomorrow will be another non-smoking day—I say that that speech we heard then from Iain Lees-Galloway was from a man who has never ever had to worry about giving up smoking after 25-odd years. It is so easy for that person to come into the House and pontificate about this that and the other thing and smoking in cars and blah-blah-blah. But the fact of the matter is that what he should have said right from the start is kia ora to our Minister in charge of this Customs and Excise (Tobacco Products—Budget Measures) Amendment Bill— 
Iain Lees-Galloway 
: I did. 
Hon TAU HENARE 
: Oh yeah he did. He did. But he could not help saying what Labour had done back in 1990. Why do you not just stick to the issue in front of you which is to say kia ora to the Hon Tariana Turia? 
Being a non-smoker a smoker a non-smoker a smoker and then hopefully a non-smoker again I say that this bill is a good thing. It will say to our young people that actually you should not be smoking because of all these reasons but also because hey cigarettes are going to cost 20 bucks a packet. You have got to be a fool—you have to be a fool— 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Lindsay Tisch) 
: Oh order! 
Hon TAU HENARE 
: —if you are going to pay 20 bucks for a packet. 
Hon Annette King 
: Oh Mr Speaker you’re not a fool. 
Hon TAU HENARE 
: You know what I mean. You also have to congratulate the Minister because if you extrapolate it out say 10 years what we save in health costs is going to be millions and millions and millions of dollars and not only through preventing the odd heart attack that a member of Parliament may have; respiratory problems all sorts of problems come from smoking. I am not a zealot. I will tell you now that if it ever comes to the House I will not vote to ban smoking in cars or even to ban smoking in cars with children in them. That is a decision for mum and dad or whomever. If you get to that point it is just one step away from being a dictatorship and as far as I am concerned I will be voting no. 
But other than that there is $20 million in this package that is going towards other assistance packages for people who find it difficult to give up smoking. I can tell you from experience—from several experiences—that even if you have been off the fags for 2 years it is so easy to pick one up and get off the wagon. I am not ashamed of it. I know that it is a buzzy thing to be a non-smoker these days like the former speaker but I have got to tell you that it is not the easiest thing to do. 
Dr Jackie Blue 
: It’s an addiction. 
Hon TAU HENARE 
: Yeah yeah and we know all of that. We know all of that. Smokers know all of that. One thing that I ask of this House and every member in it is that they do not vilify the smoker— 
Dr Jackie Blue 
: We’re not. 
Hon TAU HENARE 
: But you do. [ 
Interruption 
] You do not but she does. It is a very easy thing to do. It is a very easy thing to do. 
Hon Member 
: Yell at us. Yell at us. Yell at us. 
Hon TAU HENARE 
: I would not waste my breath on yelling at the Labour Party. It is easy to get up and be a zealot and tell people what to do. What we have to do is use some of that money that our Minister has saved for us and got in the Budget to actually prompt people in the right way to give up smoking. Kia ora.