Kedgley Sue: Smoke-free Environments Amendment Bill — Third Reading 
Kedgley Sue: Smoke-free Environments Amendment Bill — Third Reading 
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SUE KEDGLEY (Green) 
: 
 We have had some great moments in our history this week and in my view the passage of this bill today is a great moment in this Parliament. Indeed it is a great moment in our history because I believe that the bill will do more to improve the quality of life of ordinary New Zealanders than probably any other piece of legislation before Parliament in this term of office. I am quite certain we will look back in a few years’ time with incredulity and wonder why it was that we allowed people to smoke inside public places and pollute the very air we breathe with a toxic waste that contains at least 50 known carcinogens. I am certain also that we will look back with incredulity and wonder why it was that the majority of us—the 75 percent of us—who do not smoke allowed the minority who do smoke to put the health of all of us at risk by their habit because the terrible truth is that every time someone lights up a cigarette indoors he or she puts at risk the health of any other person who happens to be nearby. I am certain too that we will look back and ask what all the fuss was about—all the predictions of gloom and doom all the filibustering and all the predictions of businesses collapsing because they are required to be smoke-free. 
I am not normally a betting woman but I confidently predict there will be a renaissance in not a collapse of the hospitality industry as customers revel in the new clean pleasant indoor environment of the pub and the cafe. Contrary to all the naysayers I confidently predict that bars and restaurants in New Zealand will enjoy a new life once we have cleared the air. In making that prediction I would like to quote from an article by a sceptic who visited New York recently determined that he was going to hate the newly imposed smoke-free regulations. I quote: “Neither the ban’s proponents nor the principles underlying it have anything to commend them” he wrote “except for one thing: it works. Its impact has been magnificent. I’m just back from a week in New York City much of that time in bars and restaurants and I have had a unique experience. Not only do my clothes not reek of tobacco smoke I’ve managed to enjoy all of my food and drink without being nearly asphyxiated by neighbouring smokers.” He went on: “In New York the impact of this legislation has been truly wonderful reclaiming the city from smokers who almost never act considerately. I’ll bet a jumbo packet of Marlboro Lights that it would work elsewhere too. So rise up and unite clean-air freedom lovers of the world.” he concluded “Let’s push to make our cities places in which we can all breathe freely.” 
The Green Party is absolutely delighted that New Zealand is taking up this challenge. We will be only the third country in the world after Norway and Ireland to have a smoke-free hospitality industry. We are delighted that we are once again leading the world in protecting our workers—all of our workers including our hospitality workers—from the hazards of second-hand smoke and ensuring that all of us can breathe clean unpolluted air when we go out socially. 
An issue that has been largely ignored in the debate—and Paul Hutchison touched upon this—is the fact that the Occupational Safety and Health Service has already identified second-hand smoke as a workplace hazard. So with the new health and safety legislation in force employers will have an obligation—a legal obligation in fact—to remove workplace hazards from the workplace. All employers in New Zealand including bar and cafe owners therefore already have an obligation to remove the hazard of second-hand smoke from their workplaces. So even if this legislation did not go through I am certain that we would see a raft of prosecutions from the Occupational Safety and Health Service as a result of complaints by employees in the hospitality industry that their health had been put at risk—as it surely is; as we know it is—by being continually exposed to a workplace hazard. We expect employers to protect their employees from other workplace hazards such as asbestos and toxic chemicals to name but two so why would we not expect them to protect their workers from the hazards of second-hand smoke? We expect to be protected from the hazards of drunk drivers so why would we not expect to be protected from the hazards of second-hand smoke? 
Contrary to what the naysayers claim this bill is widely supported in the community. Thousands of New Zealanders are quietly cheering from the sidelines—and some in the gallery here today. They are like me literally counting the days until they can go to work or out for a drink and breathe clean unpolluted air and not have to come home smelling like an ashtray. We have witnessed a campaign of resistance against this legislation with endless filibusters and a concerted attempt to undermine and ridicule this legislation. Let us remember that there has been similar resistance—similar dire warnings—wherever legislation like this has been introduced. In California and New York the critics were absolutely adamant that it would not work and that it would be a disaster. Well it simply has not been a disaster. The overwhelming majority of Californians and New Yorkers are absolutely delighted with their new smoke-free environments. 
A core argument of the opponents of this bill is that people’s property rights should take precedence over the rights of people to breathe clean air and to have their health protected when they are out in public places. The fact is that there is a fundamental flaw in that argument. If smokers were only harming themselves by their habit then those arguments might have credibility. But they do not because there is a simple irrefutable fact—and it is probably at the heart of this legislation—that up to two-thirds of the smoke from a cigarette is exhaled into the air as second-hand smoke and all of us every single person who is around that smoker breathes it into his or her lungs even if he or she does not smoke. That is the heart of the problem that we are addressing in this bill. The National Heart Foundation has warned us that bars and places where smokers congregate pose the greatest risk to passive smokers because of the concentration of smoke in those places. It is incredible that many parties are suggesting that we should continue to continually expose workers to those concentrated doses of cigarette smoke. I am confident that we will see reduced staff sickness and absenteeism in the hospitality industry as well as reduced chances of litigation. 
The Green Party is pleased that two of our amendments have been accepted in the legislation: one prohibiting the sale of toy tobacco products to under-18-year-olds and the second removing penalties from individual smokers. We are pleased that we will rely on social pressures not heavy-handed penalties to get smokers to comply with the legislation. We are confident that the legislation will work despite the predictions to the contrary. It has worked overseas so why would it not work here? We know that the vast majority of smokers are aware that they are putting the health of other people at risk when they smoke indoors and that they readily accept the necessity of going outside when they smoke. We are pleased that the legislation will extend to herbal products and cannabis—were it ever to be decriminalised. We find it odd and extraordinarily hypocritical that some of those who are most in favour of keeping penalties for cannabis smokers and who rail against and demonise cannabis are the very ones who are opposed to any penalties or restrictions on smokers. They appear to be happy to allow families children and the rest of us—and our bodies and lungs—to be poisoned by second-hand tobacco smoke. 
As I wind up I thank in particular the chair of the Health Committee Steve Chadwick the previous chair Judy Keall Action on Smoking and Health and all the people who have worked to make possible the great moment that we will witness tonight with the passing of this legislation that will vastly improve the quality of life of all New Zealanders.