Watts SimonSIMON WATTS (National—North Shore): Thank you very much Mr Speaker. I rise on behalf of the National Party as a member of Parliament for North Shore on the Smokefree Environments and Regulated Products (Smoked Tobacco) Amendment Bill first reading.It's interesting to listen to the contributions across this House in regards to the first reading of this bill and I think one has to reflect back on what this legislation will deliver in terms of outcomes. Will this bill deliver the policy outcomes that are intended?For that reason the National Party are cautiously supporting this bill through to select committee. Because we do at a principal level believe that we should be undertaking all steps necessary to minimise the impact of smoking and reduce smoking in this country; because of the obvious negative impacts that that has across our communities and particularly those communities in our Māori and Pacific areas which have a much more significant impact from smoking than non-Māori.Some of the challenges which I am sure the Health Committee—of which there are a few in the House this evening—will go through  have been noted today. I guess as a volunteer ambulance officer probably the job that I enjoy least is when I attend those with exacerbations of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). For some of those people you may know it as emphysema or chronic bronchitis. For those individuals that are in a point with both of those diseases when they are simply unable to breathe it is a hugely stressful and difficult position for those patients; it's something that they live with day in day out. But it is often one of the key contributors in terms of that underlying disease—the fact that they smoked. I guess in that perspective I see often the end of the road in terms of the implications of smoking. So there's the need for us in this House to do what we can to minimise that impact—particularly for our young people in trying to ensure that they don't start on a pathway which will lead undoubtedly to that or as previously noted cancer in one form or another which has an impact on the individual the whānau but of course on our broader health system and the finite resources the system has and is struggling with.I think Dr Shane Reti noted in his contribution—and he knows far better than most in terms of the unintended clinical implications around low-nicotine cigarettes—the reality that the literature in regards to outcomes there is very limited. So we know that while the nicotine element is the part that makes cigarettes addictive there are other elements other toxins and chemicals in that cigarette and it's the tar that actually causes COPD. So there's a correlation between you know people smoking more to get their fix and potentially an unintended clinical outcome. Of course you know the vaping element again is relatively new in regards to its position and the clinical implications of that are also pretty unlimited. I think the other element is saying Well actually—right from the start—are we going to achieve the policy outcomes in regards to this bill?" I think it's fair to say—and I think a number of speakers in the House have articulated this—that there are concerns that actually if we continue along the business-as-usual trajectory that we're currently on at the moment we're not going to hit that 5 percent threshold. So there is a need for us to take an alternative pathway if we are realistic in regards to that. We know that the statistics around Pasifika and also Māori are those that based on current run rate will not hit that. So that is inequity in regards to the policy outcome and something that I'm sure the Health Committee will work through.There's a number of other elements that hopefully that we'll get some data on—particularly around the impact around the excise tax impact around that. We know that there's estimates: around $11 billion of savings in terms of the health system. But you know it's easy to talk about savings in the health system; you never translate that into real dollars that you take out and transition to somewhere else because they get absorbed and that's a reality.But we're cautiously supportive of this bill. Thank you."