King Annette: Excise and Excise-equivalent Duties Table (Tobacco Products) Amendment Bill — First Reading Second Reading Third Reading 
King Annette: Excise and Excise-equivalent Duties Table (Tobacco Products) Amendment Bill — First Reading Second Reading Third Reading 
[Volume:662;Page:10565] 
Hon ANNETTE KING (Deputy Leader—Labour) 
: 
 I am very pleased to be able to speak in this debate today in support of the Excise and Excise-equivalent Duties Table (Tobacco Products) Amendment Bill. I commend the Associate Minister of Health Tariana Turia for introducing it into Parliament today. I acknowledge that she has been a long-time opponent of tobacco. She has fought for many years for measures to reduce the consumption of tobacco and I congratulate her on bringing this bill to the House. 
I also thank Dr Hutchison for his speech today; as a doctor he would be more aware than many others of the impact of smoking. But I do have one tiny little dig to say to Dr Hutchison—what a difference a day or two makes! He might remember that when I was the Minister of Health in 2000 and I introduced a bill to increase excise duty he said “The real concern is that the bill was brought into the House by the Labour-Alliance minority socialist Government without any warning under extraordinary urgency.” That is just a gentle reminder to say that when a bill like this is brought in it probably is sensible to bring it in under extraordinary urgency and pass it through all its stages. Otherwise what could happen is what happened once when a former National member of Parliament thought the price of petrol was going to go up in a Budget. He rushed out to fill up his car with petrol only to find that the Budget actually reduced the excise on petrol. So I think it probably is a good idea I say to Dr Hutchison to pass this bill under extraordinary urgency which we are doing today and which we are supporting. 
Let me get back to the bill. I have been a long-time advocate for tobacco control even in a time before it was popular. I think probably from a health background I was well aware of the impact of smoking and like Minister Turia I was also aware of the impact of lung cancer in terms of a family death. 
New Zealand has been a long-time leader in tobacco control. In fact we were one of a handful of countries that were leaders in the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control at the World Health Assembly. I was fortunate over a number of years to represent New Zealand as we negotiated and finally passed that framework convention. New Zealand signed up to it as did practically every country in the world and we have put in place measures to reduce not only the prevalence but also the consumption of tobacco. I ask members to think back to the first real piece of legislation that tried to control tobacco. It was in 1989-90 when the Rt Hon Helen Clark as Minister of Health brought in legislation to restrict smoking in the workplace. That was seen to be a dreadful bill; it was campaigned against by many people including members in workplaces themselves. If we move forward 20 years to see what a difference there is today we see that it is widely accepted that smoking cigarettes is bad for you and bad for the population. What a big change in attitude over that time! 
Although as a country and in an international forum we have been strong in terms of our advocacy against the consumption of tobacco unfortunately we still have a very high rate of prevalence and consumption of tobacco in New Zealand ourselves. When we compare ourselves with our neighbours in Australia we see that our smoking rates are still considerably higher than those in Australia. We have seen a slower drop in both consumption and prevalence than we would like particularly amongst Maori and Pacific people and that has to be seen as an area where we need to do a lot more work. I think Minister Turia is correct when she says she hopes this will have an impact particularly on Maori in terms of reducing their smoking. 
When we look at the prevalence of smoking we see that in 1986 about 30 percent of New Zealanders were smokers—prevalence referring to those who were smoking in the population. In 2008 it was 22 percent. That was not a big drop over that period of time from 1986 to 2008 and that is one of the things we are concerned about. Also when we look at tobacco consumption which is the amount that is being smoked we see there has been little drop since 2003—it almost flat-lined in terms of prevalence. Then if we look at when we did have some drops and I suggest that people who have not read the  
Social Report 
 from the Ministry of Social Development should do so—in fact it does look at the matter under cigarette smoking—they will see that in 2000 when we increased the excise on tobacco there was a marked drop in the consumption of tobacco. It then slowly crept up again until there was the second excise increase under the previous Government and once again it dropped and then it just flat-lined. So since about 2003-04 there has been almost no change in the amount of tobacco that New Zealanders are consuming. I think that shows pretty clearly that it is price sensitive. If we increase the price of tobacco people will stop smoking. 
What is good about this bill is that the price is being increased over a period of years. It is not a one-off hit; it will increase over a number of years. It will be on loose tobacco. An issue has been that we have concentrated on tailor-made cigarettes and have not put the same emphasis on loose tobacco. This is an increase on loose tobacco and there will be a series of increases over a number of years. 
The truth is—and I think these are some of the really sobering facts about smoking—that around 5000 people die from smoking-related diseases annually in New Zealand. In fact all cigarettes are deadly for New Zealanders if people take them as prescribed on the packet. If people take them as prescribed on the packet then every single one of them is deadly. It is not quite the same as one alcoholic drink that someone might have. Alcohol is a big problem for New Zealanders but every cigarette a person has as it is prescribed on the packet is bad for him or her. The children of parents who smoke are three times more likely to be smokers. If we can stop people smoking or get them to give up before they influence their children then their children are more likely to not smoke. 
It also robs our loved ones of 15 years of life if they smoke—15 years. As people get a little older if they are lucky enough to have grandchildren they realise how precious 15 years would be in terms of seeing that grandchild or their grandchildren grow up and being lucky enough to be involved in their lives. People are robbed of 15 years if they continue smoking. As I have said roll-your-own cigarettes are just as deadly as tailor-made cigarettes. 
So the price is able to reduce the prevalence and consumption of tobacco. Hopefully this will help do that. But it also means that we will have to keep up the fight against smoking. This is not a panacea. This is just part of the number of tools that we would use against smoking. I was very pleased that when Labour was in coalition with the Green Party we were able to bring in smoking-cessation programmes particularly around nicotine patches and so on that were affordable to New Zealanders to help them. 
If I remember correctly and Minister Turia can correct me if I am wrong about 30 percent of people who smoke are addicted to tobacco; the rest are heavy smokers. For those who are addicted they need help. That is why in our tool box we need to have the excise increase assistance for people who want to give up smoking and ongoing public health education. I think that that three-pronged attack will help bring down our smoking consumption in New Zealand. I do not believe that many members of this House today would not support that. We want to see New Zealanders live longer. We do not want to continue to see the cancers respiratory diseases and cardiovascular diseases that come from smoking along with things like sudden infant death syndrome which is related to smoking and the respiratory problems we see in children. 
I commend Minister Turia for bringing this to the House. I know that it is not the end of her work and that she will be very happy when we also control the display of tobacco in dairies and supermarkets.