Lotu-Iiga Sam: Customs and Excise (Tobacco Products—Budget Measures) Amendment Bill — First Reading Second Reading In Committee Third ReadingText is subject to correctionLotu-Iiga Sam: Customs and Excise (Tobacco Products—Budget Measures) Amendment Bill — First Reading Second Reading In Committee Third Reading[Sitting date: 26 May 2016. Volume:714;Page:11434. Text is subject to correction.]Hon Peseta SAM LOTU-IIGA (Associate Minister of Health): I move That the Customs and Excise (Tobacco Products—Budget Measures) Amendment Bill be now read a second time. In the first reading I spoke about why this legislation is good for all New Zealanders. I talked about the costs of smoking and I presented some evidence to suggest why this is important to New Zealanders—why it is important to the health of New Zealanders—and why a tax is part of an overall package to bring down the costs of smoking to save lives and overall to improve the well-being of New Zealanders.Some points have been mentioned from across the Chamber around applying these tax revenues to the public health spend. It is true that there will be $425 million raised over the next 4 years but as Minister Coleman said in his comments yesterday after the Budget speech that will go towards more hip and knee replacements. That will go towards disability support services for those in need. It will also go towards the bowel cancer screening programmes that will be delivered in the next 4 years. Those are the types of health programmes that are good for New Zealanders and I do not think New Zealanders out there would argue that this money would not be well spent on health services delivered to New Zealanders over the next 4 years.Members opposite said that it was just a revenue grab but you know increasing tobacco excise—we know and it is internationally recognised that it reduces harm and that it reduces the cost to society. Members opposite also referred to the impact on lower socio-economic groups but only one member opposite actually understood and looked at the evidence. I thank Ms Wall for actually doing the research and understanding the impacts of this legislation and I want to quote from the experts whom Mr Clark mentioned. In the study by Wilson Thomson Tobias and Blakely they raised two conclusions. The first is that “The estimated harm to life expectancy from tobacco taxation … is orders of magnitude smaller than the harm from smoking.” and secondly—and this is important for us as lawmakers in this debating chamber—“Policy makers should be reassured that tobacco taxation is likely to be achieving far more benefit than harm in the general population and in socioeconomically deprived populations.” That is the evidence that has been presented. Ms Wall understands that. I suggest she talk to her colleagues just to bring them up to speed with some of the latest evidence.What was also mentioned—and the Māori Party referred to it—was that this measure in and of itself is beneficial to the health of New Zealanders but in and of itself it requires support. So there is a comprehensive tobacco control programme in this country. It is world-renowned and it is delivered with serious health outcomes in mind. The effectiveness of these programmes has been measured and they do through the various smoking cessation tools and programmes face-to-face smoking cessation interventions as well as Quitline and the stop-smoking medicines—there are a number of these programmes out in the community that are being used to reduce the incidence of smoking.Some programmes are more effective than others and I reiterate our Government is committed to ensuring that the programmes that are working well should be funded and those that do not work so well should be cut. It is as simple as that. We want more effective programmes because we know that if you invest a dollar of taxpayers’ money you want to see a return on that investment where it costs—Treasury estimates that the valuation of stopping a person smoking is about $38000. The valuation of preventing someone from smoking is approximately $13000.Other members in this House have also referred to a black market supposedly being ramped up. Well there is no evidence—no evidence whatsoever—of this market being in place. The officials have looked at the size of the illicit tobacco market in New Zealand. It is estimated to be about 2.8 percent which is far lower than it is for some of our trading partners overseas. It is far lower than those whose health systems we compare ourselves with. So there is no evidence of that. But the authorities—the Customs Service and the police as well as health officials—are keeping a watching brief on this particular area.So I want to just summarise by saying that smoking is responsible for close to 10 percent of health loss from all causes and it includes 4500 to 5000 premature deaths a year. That is why we are passing this bill. It is a useful bill. It is something that I think most parties around this Chamber are supporting. It is helping us on our way to our smoke-free goal by 2025 and again in this second reading I urge members opposite members around this Chamber to support this piece of legislation.