Mark Ron: Smoke-free Environments Amendment Bill — Procedure Referral to Health Committee In Committee Speaker Recalled In Committee Speaker Recalled  Speaker Recalled In Committee Procedure 
Mark Ron: Smoke-free Environments Amendment Bill — Procedure Referral to Health Committee In Committee Speaker Recalled In Committee Speaker Recalled  Speaker Recalled In Committee Procedure 
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RON MARK (NZ First) 
: 
 I think that this is only the second speech I have made in the entire passage of this bill. I have a couple of points. In respect of clean air I know that we have allowed the debate to go a little bit wider than it should have on Part 3. Peter Brown made a comment earlier on. I would like to put on record that people who have advocated that one cannot change the air in a room to a sufficient standard should bear in mind that for decades now we have had armoured vehicles in use in Europe that are nuclear biological and chemical - capable. To protect the crew those vehicles have ventilation systems that are able to filter out all nuclear fallout and the radiation that may be contained in dust. If we can do that with armoured vehicles in combat situations and if we can build tented hospitals and produce sufficient clean air for people to have major surgery then I am sure that we can clear the air in bars. [ 
Interruption 
] That is right. All we have to do is to clear the tobacco out of the air. 
I appreciate Mr Donald pointing out the group of young folk visiting the Chamber today because I want them all to understand that Part 3 is probably targeted at those of them who smoke. The member of Parliament in the chair Steve Chadwick is a person who does not believe that young people have the right to go and smoke in a bar with their friends. People like Steve Chadwick have passed other bills that enable young people to drink at the age of 18 but those young people are not to dare to have a cigarette while they are in a bar because the person described in Part 3 as an enforcement officer may be the person standing beside them. 
Those people do not come in uniforms. I would have liked Part 3 to provide for a uniform for these officers—an armband with crossed cigarettes in the form of a Nazi swastika or something like that because that is the type of person they will be. I say to these young people that those officers will be spying on their every little move because it would appear according to the Labour Government—which wants to dictate everything they do in their lives—that young people do not have the brains and the smarts to make up their own minds as to whether they will smoke where they will smoke and when they will smoke. These enforcement officers will be in disguise working undercover in bars in nightclubs checking on all these young people— 
Hon Maurice Williamson 
: In shorts and bobby socks. 
RON MARK 
: Yes we are bit worried about the type of people who will be employed. Perhaps this is an employment opportunity for any young person who wants to be an enforcement officer. Young people may want to go and see Steve Chadwick in Rotorua and ask for a job and then they can spy on their mates. They may even pick up a bounty for doing so. How wonderful! 
It would seem that the Labour Government is more interested that young ladies should not smoke in bars but be put out on to the footpath and made to look like hookers. This is the Government that legalised prostitution. This legislation is going to push young women smokers—who are not prostitutes—out on the streets at night while all their mates are in the bar having a drink enjoying the band and having a great time. All I am saying is that enough people have expressed their concern that a certain group of New Zealanders are being treated so differently and not being allowed to stay in a bar with their friends and smoke. 
This Labour Government does not seem to understand that everybody here is perfectly capable of making a decision for himself or herself. If people go out at night to a bar with their friends to have a quiet drink and if they choose to be with a person who smokes they do not want an enforcement officer to be hanging off their shoulder checking monitoring and watching what they are doing. These enforcement officers will be taking samples of air in a place using any device for that purpose that they bring with them. What device? Are they going to take a big lungful of air rush outside blow it into a bag and run away secretly and test or sample it? Are they going to come in with a big vacuum cleaner and hoover up the air then rush away with a little sealed bag? The bill does not mention whether that device is a scientifically proven credible device. What sort of legislation is that?