Mark Ron: Smoke-free Environments Amendment Bill — Procedure Referral to Health Committee Instruction to CommitteeCWH In Committee 
Mark Ron: Smoke-free Environments Amendment Bill — Procedure Referral to Health Committee Instruction to CommitteeCWH In Committee 
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RON MARK (NZ First) 
: 
 I actually came to the House on my way to the gymnasium and probably with that in mind and reflecting on the speech given by Winston Peters I would say that a few members in this House should be doing likewise—as opposed to them telling the nation how its people should be living their lives. I recognise a number of people in this House whom I see exercising in the gym or occasionally padding it out on the road. However I do not see anywhere in the title where those members are seeking to tell the rest of Parliament how they should be living their lives in respect of their physical well-being. I want to put on record that I think the Smoke-free Environments (Enhanced Protection) Amendment Bill is another one of those nosy-parker pieces of legislation. 
I want to make it very clear right now that I am a non-smoker. I live with a wife who smokes and we have many discussions on the issues of smoking. But the one thing I would not dare to do—and any man would be a fool to do—is set about telling my wife how she should live her life. I would simply say to people who might suggest to me that my wife is not a good mother because she smokes and that her practice is detrimental to the health and well-being of our children to look in his or her own backyard before daring to suggest that my wife has not brought up her children well. I would suggest that one looks at one’s own whanaunga or at one’s own whanau before daring to suggest that my kids have not been successful in life or will not be successful in life. 
Nosy-parker legislation like this is fine if one is addressing the real issue. “Enhanced protection” immediately makes me think of some of the smoky bars I have been to in my time in the Middle East the UK and New Zealand and I have quite enjoyed being in many of those places. At times when a non-smoker finds it difficult to breath in any place he or she has the choice to leave. If a bar manager wishes to cater for a select crowd and make his bar smoke-free that is a business decision that that owner makes. It is not up to this Parliament to tell that man or woman how to run that bar. 
If that person wants to invest a huge amount of money putting in an air-conditioning system that filters the air so that Returned Services Association members can have a smoke-free environment that is his or her decision. It is a commercial decision based on the clientele’s needs and the ability of that business to recover that investment. But that is where it should stop. For Parliament to pass legislation like this under the guise of doing it for our own good smacks of the nanny-State stuff that I did not expect certain members in the Labour benches to be voting for. 
I know them personally. Having worked alongside those members as a Labour Party member many years ago I know what it is in their hearts. What I see happening here is a whip from the Prime Minister who occasionally turns up to the House to answer questions. It is the long handle of the whip she exerts. I simply say this: thank you Labour Party for helping us with the Returned Services Association vote. Thank you very much for putting legislation here. I hope it has the numbers and I hope it is passed but I will be voting against it. Thank you for telling Maori how they should live their lives. 
Quite frankly I would rather that this Government focused on obesity and that it dealt with pokie machines. I have been into many supposedly smoke-filled bar rooms and the places I am more concerned about are those little tucked-away nooks and crannies that are jam-packed with pokie machines and that at 2.30 in the afternoon are full of people. I suggest that many of them are Labour voters who should not be in there and who are spending money from a benefit or hard-earned money from their partners on the pokie machines. If there are areas that this Government needs to stick its nosy beak into maybe it should focus on those areas because many of those people are its own core members. I simply say that politically correct legislation like this is doing us a huge amount of good. Members have seen how New Zealand First is on the rise and continues to rise in the polls. 
If members are really concerned about the well-being of Maori women who smoke then I would ask Dr Hutchison how come Maori women live longer than Maori men if the health of so many Maori women is so poorly affected by smoking? The figures are there. How come the Japanese live longer than everybody yet they smoke more than anybody? There are a whole heap of inconsistencies in the arguments that have been put forward. I do not believe that this bill in any way shape or form stacks up to what people say are the reasons for passing it. 
I note the genuine concerns of some members of this Parliament and I appreciate them. I note Steve Chadwick’s concerns. However I also have a deep suspicion that for every one person who votes for this bill out of a genuine belief that he or she is doing the right thing some other Labour people will have been whipped into it.