Boscawen John: Smoke-free Environments (Controls and Enforcement) Amendment Bill — Third Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Boscawen John: Smoke-free Environments (Controls and Enforcement) Amendment Bill — Third Reading 
[Sitting date: 14 July 2011. Volume:674;Page:20130. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon JOHN BOSCAWEN (Leader—ACT) 
: 
 It is indeed a pleasure and a privilege to speak on the third reading of the Smoke-free Environments (Controls and Enforcement) Amendment Bill. I particularly want to take this opportunity because I see it as an opportunity to congratulate and to recognise the hard work of Tariana Turia. I pay particular credit to her and to her colleagues who have championed this legislation. The ACT Party will have a split vote on this bill and I will address that issue very shortly but I would like to start by saying that this particular issue has been a very personal one of mine for many years. As Tariana Turia acknowledged the effects of tobacco smoking are devastating. She talked about smoking being the leading cause of preventable death and yes it is preventable. So why do we condemn 5000 people a year to die from the effects of smoking when we can actually do something about it? 
Tariana Turia went on to acknowledge the contributions of many organisations and many members of Parliament on this particular issue over many years. I would like to add to that list as Grant Robertson did Iain Lees-Galloway. Iain Lees-Galloway introduced a member’s bill. He put the issue on the table but it was Tariana Turia who picked up that issue. I congratulate Iain Lees-Galloway and I congratulate Tariana Turia on convincing the Government to pick up that issue and run with it. Mr Lees-Galloway referred to the fact that he was a member of the Maori Affairs Committee for its deliberations on the inquiry into tobacco. I also attended one or two of its meetings. I certainly was not a member of the committee and I certainly did not put the time into it that Iain Lees-Galloway and the other members of the committee did. On the two occasions I did attend I was very impressed with the dedication and the commitment with which the members of that committee went about their job. 
The very first person Tariana Turia acknowledged was the Rt Hon Helen Clark. I will also pay a tribute to her today. Even though we have political differences in many areas— 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: No! 
Hon JOHN BOSCAWEN 
: That is right I say to Mr Mallard. We do have differences in many areas but I will never forget the first occasion when I met Helen Clark when she was the Minister of Health. She was attending a small private cocktail party in 1989. She had just announced measures or in fact may well have just passed legislation to ban tobacco company sponsorship of sporting events. If members think back 20 years they may recall the Benson and Hedges Open tennis tournament in Auckland. The legislation that Helen Clark passed as Minister of Health in that Labour Government outlawed tobacco company sponsorship of sporting events an activity that legitimised if you like the regular use of tobacco. 
I will never forget a question that was put to Helen Clark. She was asked to justify how she could ban tobacco companies from sponsoring sporting events but would not ban liquor companies from sponsoring an event. The answer she gave on that day still sticks with me 22 years later. Some people today would dispute her answer. Straight as a flash she looked at the questioner and said: “Tobacco kills people.” Tobacco kills people. Yes people die from alcohol-related causes. They do die from the effects of car accidents. But people can drink alcohol in moderation and they can have a glass of wine each day without it doing permanent damage to their health. The tragedy is that no one can actually smoke safely. People cannot smoke one cigarette a day 10 cigarettes a day or a packet a day without the risk that it could damage their health and eventually kill them. I do not doubt that there are people who smoke for their entire life. I will never forget my late grandmother Sydney Boscawen. She gave up smoking in her early 80s she gave up drinking whisky in her mid-80s and she lived a very long life. My grandmother played the odds and she was successful but tragically so many are not. 
Reference has been made to the fact that although the average incidence of smoking is one in five amongst young Maori women it is one in two. That is 50 percent. Because my interest in this issue goes back many years I will never forget a documentary I saw on Television New Zealand one Sunday night. It would have been probably 20 years ago. It followed the last 18 months in the life of a young Maori mother from the East Cape. Looking at the nods I see there may be people in this Chamber who recall that documentary. I do not know the family and I cannot recall the name but the tragedy of that documentary was that it followed how that lady was diagnosed the initial feelings of optimism—“We can beat this cancer; we’re going to survive.”—the slow realisation that the treatment was not working and the general acceptance that the lady was going to die with her young children around her realising that their mother was going to die. Tragically the documentary concluded with her tangi—her funeral—on a marae on the East Cape of the North Island. That sort of death is preventable and I congratulate the people who have supported this bill. 
I want to focus particularly on young people because we know that tobacco is very very addictive. People get addicted at a very young age. We heard this afternoon that of the people between the ages of 15 to 19 who smoke the average age they had their first cigarette was 13½ years. We heard that of the people who smoke between the ages of 15 and 19 two-thirds of them wish they had never smoked or never had their first cigarette. A young child—because that is what 12 13 14 15 and 16-year-olds are—with a young brain gets addicted before his or her brain is properly formed. Once those young people realise that they have become addicted and realise the consequences for their health so many of them cannot give up. 
I referred to the fact that the ACT Party will be having a split vote on this issue and I am very lucky in a caucus of five that our caucus rules allow us to split our votes. We do not do it often but certainly on issues of principle we do. On this occasion the ACT Party will be voting two votes in favour and three votes against. I would like to take the opportunity to explain a little about the reasons why my three colleagues are voting against it. The concern of Heather Roy Sir Roger Douglas and Hilary Calvert—Hilary has joined me in the Chamber this afternoon—is I guess the issue of freedom: if one is informed of the issues and if one is aware that smoking is addictive one should be free to take it up and we should not place that restriction on people. 
I have no doubt that my three colleagues are every bit as concerned about young people—both Pacific and Maori and people of other races—in this country as we are. I have no doubts about their concerns. But interestingly Kevin Hague said that the model that was based on providing more information and giving choices was a flawed model and it was flawed because young people become addicted at a very young age. That is a very fair argument and I have to say I support Mr Hague’s argument but I acknowledge that the views of my three colleagues who are voting against this bill are very strongly held. I totally support and understand that. I would also like to take this opportunity to acknowledge that in the second reading of this bill the ACT vote was recorded as being one vote for and four votes against. The vote of Rodney Hide was recorded as a vote against but that was a misunderstanding. Rodney Hide voted for the first reading of this bill and he voted in favour of it during the Committee stage and his vote was incorrectly recorded as a vote against the bill in the second reading when in actual fact it was a vote for it. 
I am very conscious of the narrowness of this debate but I would like to issue I guess a challenge to the Maori Party because we are concerned about this issue. There are other issues where we can do things to address major differences—the deprivation if you like—between Maori Pacific and non-Maori.