Salesa JennySMOKEFREE ENVIRONMENTS AND REGULATED PRODUCTS (VAPING) AMENDMENT BILLFirst ReadingDebate resumed from 5 March.Hon JENNY SALESA (Associate Minister of Health): As I was saying public health experts for many decades have grappled with the curse of tobacco. In 1976 in a paper in the British Medical Journal Professor Michael Russell wrote that people smoke for the nicotine but they die from the tar. That simple statement is as true today as it was 44 years ago. In his paper Professor Russell believed the answer to helping smokers was to find a cigarette that maintained a sufficient level of nicotine the addictive substance that is craved while reducing the amount of tar.Professor Russell would not have been able to foresee that three decades later the first modern electronic cigarette would be able to deliver a chosen amount of nicotine without the need for tar at all—that people would be able to inhale the nicotine they craved while being spared from the fatal cocktail of tar and burning tobacco and the thousands of toxins in the smoke.The credit for this technological development is frequently given to the Chinese pharmacist Hon Lik who was himself a heavy smoker. Desperate to quit after seeing his father die from the same addiction the products inspired Hon's breakthrough representing arguably the most disruptive technology for breaking the addiction of tobacco the world has ever seen. Of course I'm referring here to vaping. Many people want to quit smoking but quitting is very challenging. I know this from friends who smoke as well as from a number of people who have shared their journey of quitting smoking with me. While vaping is not harmless because it does not burn tobacco or produce tar and toxins—which occurs in cigarettes—we know that vaping is significantly less harmful compared to smoking tobacco. It is a disruptive technology and has a role in helping us reach our smoke-free 2025 goal.If the only concern this Government faced in drafting this legislation was to encourage vaping for smokers who wish to quit our job would have been relatively simple but regulating vaping is not that simple. Indeed there are two sides to the issue. Nicotine is a highly addictive substance that companies have in the past chosen to introduce to children and young people and non-smokers in order to create dependency and therefore create customers to line their pockets with profit if you like. Vaping products carry the same risk.I'm deeply concerned that some vaping companies have demonstrated aggressive marketing towards our young people in other jurisdictions and that danger exists in Aotearoa New Zealand too. In recent months I've seen vaping advertising on TV on billboards on bus shelters and even on my teenage daughters' social media feeds.Academic research reveals what they're up to when it comes to our young people. A recent paper from Stanford University school of medicine found that JUUL Labs' advertising imagery in its first six months on the market was patently youth oriented. The research has cast light on what most people watching this tidal wave of trendy nicotine products felt: that JUUL claiming that it was marketing to smokers was not congruent with JUUL's image branding or presence on youth-focused platforms.The practices nicotine companies engaged in when their ads ruled the airwaves belong solidly in the 1950s. We expect better because this Government more than any in recent memory addresses the issues in the best interests of our tamariki and our young people. Our Prime Minister the Rt Hon Jacinda Ardern has made making New Zealand the best place in the world to be a child a priority for our Government. So when I hear from parents teachers and school principals—as I've done in recent months—reports that vaping is becoming far too common especially in schools I am deeply concerned.While recent data from anti-smoking group Action for Smokefree 2025 suggests that there is no vaping epidemic in New Zealand—let me repeat that: there is no vaping youth epidemic here—now is the time for action to prevent such an epidemic from happening in our country.With this bill we are acting to stop the sale of vaping products to young people under the age of 18; require child-resistant packaging like they have in the UK; ban advertising including the kind of aggressive targeting of these products to children and young people that we've seen; be able to restrict flavours like watermelon cherry cola berry-a-peelin" apple pie and others from being sold at corner dairies supermarkets and service stations; stop the kinds of promotions that were seen in the last two years where vaping companies were in our rugby clubs and promoting their nicotine products on our beaches over summer; and prevent the normalisation of vaping by extending the currently legislated smoke-free areas for tobacco to vaping such as our schools hospitals workplaces bars and restaurants. All of this adds up to an important protection of our young people.What about adults? While we know we don't want young people vaping when they have never been smokers before because we don't want a new generation getting hooked on nicotine adults will still ask: is it safe? The Government's advice is if you don't currently smoke do not take up vaping; however if you are a smoker vaping is substantially less harmful to you and your body than smoking. Only vape to quit.This is a futureproof regime that will ensure Governments of the future can be swift in their response to emerging problems and evidence on vaping and in particular vape products. At the heart of our product safety regime is a notification system. This bill requires manufacturers and importers to notify products to the Ministry of Health before they market them. This will enable the ministry to follow up rapidly if any safety problems arise. The bill will also contain the ability for regulations on maximum nicotine levels.This bill has elegantly dealt with the challenge of seeking to encourage vaping for current smokers and discouraging vaping for non-smokers and children. How we've done this in part is to confer a greater set of rights and responsibilities on to R18 specialty vape stores. What I've learnt through developing this bill is that there are some very responsible vaping retailers particularly some of our specialist vaping retail store owners. Our regime gives them an important role in helping smokers to transition with advice behind the counter on how to quit cigarettes while vaping. This bill restricts the sale of flavours available at general retailers to tobacco menthol and mint while still allowing adults to access a full range of flavours available in these specialist vaping retail stores.The bill also contains a number of provisions unrelated to vaping and smokeless tobacco products that I look forward to discussing further when the bill progresses through this House.Finally I want to conclude by bringing it back to my focus—our children and our young people and tamariki. We are ambitious for our tamariki and we would like our children to be the smoke-free generation in Aotearoa. We also want them to have more time with healthier parents and grandparents by seeing other generations also kick the smoking habit. We know that vaping is a disruptive technology with a lot of potential to contribute to smoke-free 2025 but we also know that we must be smart and careful to prevent this addictive product from becoming normalised amongst children and young people and non-smokers. This bill achieves that balance.I look forward to the Health Committee's consideration of the bill and the opportunity for all of New Zealand to have their say. I strongly commend this bill to the House. Thank you Mr Speaker."