te Heuheu Georgina: Smoke-free Environments Amendment Bill — Referral to Health Committee Procedure In Committee 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
te Heuheu Georgina: Smoke-free Environments Amendment Bill — Referral to Health Committee Procedure In Committee 
[Sitting date: 15 October 2003. Volume:612;Page:9245. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon GEORGINA TE HEUHEU (National) 
: 
 I have spotted up in the gallery behind me one of the Maori leaders in the anti-smoking lobby and because he is there I have been motivated to stand and speak in this debate. As my colleague Lindsay Tisch indicated I have been a supporter of this bill up until now. That possibly will come as no surprise to colleagues because as we know smoking is a huge issue among Maori communities. It is a huge issue for Maori women and more worryingly it is a huge issue for young Maori women and girls. At the 13 14 and 15 year age group smoking is increasingly becoming an issue of major proportions. Nobody would be surprised to learn that when this bill was resuscitated I as a Maori woman MP was targeted yet again by probably all the lobby groups. 
Hon Tony Ryall 
: Were you on the list? 
Hon GEORGINA TE HEUHEU 
: I am advised that I was on the list absolutely. I certainly expected I would be lobbied heavily. In fact for the last few years I have been a supporter of the Maori lobby against smoking. I thought it was worthwhile to be supportive of the activities it has developed and run to discourage Maori from smoking. As a person in this Parliament I have always seen it as important to lend my support to those activities. 
Earlier when it was revealed that the Ministry of Health had made a huge payment to the smoke-free lobby groups I was hugely disappointed. It is absolutely obscene that that has happened. To be honest I feel absolutely had. I opened my doors to the anti-smoking groups particularly those working in the Maori area. I was happy to give them time—probably more time than I have given other lobby groups on other issues—but I feel a bit betrayed. I want the person who is sitting up there at the back in the gallery behind me to know that I feel betrayed. It is likely that when those groups came into my office and lobbied hard for something on which there should be a strong lobby they were in fact taking taxpayers’ money from the Ministry of Health—money that was being pushed their way by the Government and by the member in the chair Steve Chadwick. 
I would like Steve Chadwick to take a call to answer the allegations that have been put in this Chamber because the matter does amount to corruption. I feel had that as a Maori MP I willingly opened my door to the lobby groups listened to them and gave them good time. I have supported their activities. I went to Christchurch earlier in the year— 
Hon Damien O'Connor 
: You did their contracts. 
Hon GEORGINA TE HEUHEU 
: Were we the ones who asked those groups to go and specifically lobby MPs? No! Were we the ones who told them to go and lobby Maori MPs? Not at all! That member should hang his head in shame as should those members opposite and the member in the chair. The member in the chair Steve Chadwick should let the taxpayers in Rotorua know she is part of a Government that willingly allows their hard-earned money to be used for lobby groups that push her cause. This is a member’s bill. She could not even get her Government to do it yet it may as well be a Government bill because the hard-earned money of taxpayers has been used to lobby MPs. 
Hon Damien O'Connor 
: Under the member’s contracts. 
Hon GEORGINA TE HEUHEU 
: That Minister should take a call.