Hutchison Paul: Excise and Excise-equivalent Duties Table (Tobacco Products) Amendment Bill — First Reading Second Reading Third Reading 
Hutchison Paul: Excise and Excise-equivalent Duties Table (Tobacco Products) Amendment Bill — First Reading Second Reading Third Reading 
[Volume:662;Page:10563] 
Dr PAUL HUTCHISON (National—Hunua) 
: 
 Thank you very much for the opportunity to speak on the Excise and Excise-equivalent Duties Table (Tobacco Products) Amendment Bill. As other speakers have said this bill is an incredibly important part of the jigsaw puzzle of reducing smoking in New Zealand. I pay tribute to the Associate Minister of Health the Hon Tariana Turia for her long-expressed efforts in bringing this legislation to fruition today and to the National Government. Cabinet has agreed to equalise the tobacco excise by weight resulting in a one-off 14 percent rise in excise duties on loose tobacco as used in roll-your-own cigarettes. It has further agreed to increase the tobacco excise across all tobacco products by 10 percent immediately and then by a further 10 percent in January 2011 and January 2012. This amendment bill is sponsored by Tariana Turia. 
It is interesting to note that “Tobacco taxation has been shown to be one of the most effective means of encouraging people to quit smoking or at least to cut down.” Those were the very words of Annette King back in 2000 when a similar bill was passed under urgency. I note and acknowledge that the Maori Affairs Committee is currently carrying out an inquiry into tobacco control and I understand that it has received many submissions that support the tool of an excise tax. Furthermore the World Health Organization recommends that countries tax tobacco to discourage tobacco consumption. There is a lot of evidence to show that this mechanism has worked and in the past if one goes through the various times when this has happened in New Zealand one finds that there has been a decrease in consumption. 
I think it is really important to recognise that the ban on smoking in bars and restaurants has become widely accepted in New Zealand and that patrons largely welcomed those changes. 
Hon Darren Hughes 
: Opposed by National. 
Dr PAUL HUTCHISON 
: I must say that I was very much for that move. People up and down New Zealand say that it is extremely welcome. This debate is not about choice; smokers will still have a choice to smoke. 
It is worthwhile bringing in the libertarian argument because there is no doubt that basic libertarian philosophy advocates as much freedom as possible provided it does no harm. There is no question that not only direct smoking does harm but second-hand smoking does considerable harm. Therefore this legislation is one of the great public health tools that we can implement to cut down on a very very concerning spectrum of conditions. 
A combination of efforts has been made over a number of years and in a variety of ways in order to assist people to quit smoking. But the impact of an excise increase on tobacco is quite dramatic: a combination of triggering new quit attempts preventing quit relapses and dissuading new smokers. It is estimated that after 10 years there will be 40000 fewer smokers and 300 fewer premature smoking-related deaths. After 20 years it is estimated there will be 80000 fewer smokers and 600 fewer premature smoking-related deaths a year. It is interesting to note that the prevalence of smoking and tobacco consumption has dropped in New Zealand over the last 50 years. However those declines have slowed significantly since 1990 and in the case of consumption have stalled since 2003. I again acknowledge that the Smoke-free Environments Amendment Act was a challenging piece of legislation at the time but it has been much accepted throughout this country. The present legislation is being welcomed as far as I can tell by all parties. It is very heartening to have heard Ruth Dyson say that she supports the Government in this initiative. 
It is interesting historically that the link between tobacco smoking and disease was not proven until the 1960s when Sir Richard Doll an epidemiologist from Oxford University came through with quite unequivocal evidence-based research to show those links. More recently this link has also been shown with marijuana smoking. Smoking not only affects the respiratory system by causing lung cancer pharynx cancer and lip cancer but also causes an increased number of cases of heart disease an increased number of strokes and it badly affects people who have chronic obstructive respiratory disease. It also affects unborn babies who can be profoundly affected with intrauterine growth retardation and of course young infants can have chronic chest infections made much worse if they are brought up in a smoking environment. 
I saw this firsthand as a pathology resident in the United States. If anyone wants to see an image that will make them quit smoking or wants an abrupt session on the effects of smoking I suggest that that person cuts open the body of a chronic smoker who has died from chronic obstructive airways disease. That person will see a black lung; it is a horrific sight. Later on as a specialist obstetrician time and time again I had the spectre of growth-retarded babies of mothers who had smoked heavily throughout their pregnancy and clearly had given their infants a very poor start in life—they would be unable to achieve their full potential. 
There is no doubt that the bill has a very very solid basis behind its being introduced into the House today. There are concerns about whether it will affect lower socio-economic groups more than others. But the Government has put in place a considerable amount of money towards efforts to help people quit smoking. In fact this year $57 million was provided towards tobacco control and smoking cessation services including nicotine replacement products and prescriptions to help smokers quit. The bulk of this money funds Quitline and other specialist services targeted towards helping people to quit smoking and focuses on Maori Pacific and pregnancy services. There is also funding for training education research monitoring evaluation and media campaigns. 
The financial costs associated with this bill are quite staggering. The health costs are billions of dollars every year and of course the amount raised from the excise tax will go up to over a billion dollars a year. But the sad thing is that smoking continues when quitting smoking would prevent a whole array of crippling conditions such as the ones I mentioned before—lung cancer strokes and many others. Hopefully the provisions in this bill will stop young people from taking up smoking in the first place. It is an extremely positive move to help people stop smoking. Thank you.