Peters Winston: Smoke-free Environments Amendment Bill — Referral to Health Committee Procedure In Committee 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Peters Winston: Smoke-free Environments Amendment Bill — Referral to Health Committee Procedure In Committee 
[Sitting date: 15 October 2003. Volume:612;Page:9239. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS (Leader—NZ First) 
: 
 In the old days when Labour was in Opposition I was used to hearing its constant refrain on every Budget night that the Government was taxing the working man’s pleasures. Labour members would get up and talk about the needs of the hard-working people of this country and of the right of men and women to have a drink and a cigarette on a Friday night to ease their labours and their toils. Back then Labour Party members understood working men and women—not like this bunch now with their pristine hands and their prissy attitudes. Back then Labour was a party that understood working men and women and their plight but not this bunch now. They are arrogant pseudo-intellectual prying snooping attitude cops. That is what they are. 
This bill is based on a lie. The member in the chair Steve Chadwick knows full well that air extractors would clean the air better than if we had an environment of no smoking at all. The National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research said that and it is qualified to say it. It is true but Labour has never been interested in the facts. How come Labour cannot put one statistic behind its argument? 
Dianne Yates 
: We have your health at heart Winston. We want to save your life. 
Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS 
: Now that member looks like a serious cigarette smoker does she not? But she is not which proves my point. 
My point is that if Labour cares about people why does it not deal with obesity? In 1997 11000 people died from obesity-related diseases—about 20 times more than the spurious number that the member keeps putting up. What is Labour doing about diet and obesity? Nothing. We can pig out and eat all we like but because Labour does not like smoking it will stop people from doing what will be—in the environment about which we speak—a safe activity for all those who are associated with it. 
This bill is based on a lie. The member in the chair Steve Chadwick knows full well that it is based on a lie and that with regard to hotels and restaurants there is no need for it if the appropriate air extractors are fitted. The member shakes her head. Is she a scientist? 
R Doug Woolerton 
: No. 
Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS 
: No. Is she an expert? 
R Doug Woolerton 
: No. 
Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS 
: No. What are her qualifications? What does she do? What makes her an expert? She shakes her head. I hope all the working people in Rotorua come out and punish her at the next election and send her on her way. People who think they can deal with working people that way without regard for their needs have in my view ideas way above their station. Why is it right that Returned Services Association members who have put their lives on the line will not be able to smoke—even though they might be almost unanimous in agreeing that they should be allowed to smoke—yet prisoners can? Is that not a perverted sense of priority? Prisoners can smoke but war heroes cannot. 
Brent Catchpole 
: They have freedom of choice obviously. 
Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS 
: Yes they have freedom of choice because this Government is soft on criminals and tough on hard-working decent taxpaying New Zealanders. Prisoners may smoke; war heroes may not. 
Hon Damien O'Connor 
: This was your bill. 
Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS 
: Here is the next lie. The member said this was New Zealand First’s bill. He knows full well that when Tukoroirangi Morgan introduced the bill he had left New Zealand First and was supporting the National Party. The member knows that so why tell a lie? Why not tell the truth? True or false: was Tukoroirangi Morgan in New Zealand First when he introduced the bill? Yes or no? 
Under my leadership he would have never even have had the bill drafted because we believe in freedom of choice for all New Zealanders. We believe in the right of people after a hard working week to have a few of the working man’s pleasures. But then again those prissy people over there know nothing about workers. Most of them think that “manual labour” is the Prime Minister of Mexico. They have never done a decent day’s work in their lives and it shows.