Ngarewa-Packer DebbieDEBBIE NGAREWA-PACKER (Co-Leader—Te Paati Māori): Tēnā koe e te Pīka. Tēnā tātou e te Whare. It's a very very loud Whare this evening. I rise on behalf of Te Paati Māori to speak—ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jacqui Dean): Order! Debbie Ngarewa-Packer—five-minute call.DEBBIE NGAREWA-PACKER: Thank you; I'd already started.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jacqui Dean): I know.DEBBIE NGAREWA-PACKER: I appreciate that. I was getting a bit worried I'd missed my turn!So just to re-emphasise I rise to speak to the third reading of the Smokefree Environments and Regulated Products (Smoked Tobacco) Amendment Bill. We support this bill so I'll get that out of the way in the first sentence. [Cheers across the House] Thank you. We acknowledge the Government for continuing the work of Tariana Turia and Hone Harawira and the kaupapa Māori health advocates across the country. Te Paati Māori are extremely proud of our founders who paved this way and I guess it's also something that we've been fighting for for decades: to reduce tobacco in Aotearoa.It must be acknowledged just how successful it's been. In the year 2000 the daily smoking rate for rangatahi was 31 percent; today it's only 5 percent—I shouldn't say only but it lowered down to 5 percent. It's easy to forget just how far we've come in the last 20 years.Yet we recognise we're still in a dangerous position as a people. More than 22 percent of Māori adults are daily smokers well over double the general rate of the adult population. We know the harm that tobacco alongside other drugs continues to cause. That is why we support this bill and the vision to end drug abuse in our communities.In particular Te Paati Māori strongly support reducing retail availability appeal and attractiveness of smoked tobacco products for young people. The research is clear: these measures will go a long way to achieving continued decreases in smoking over the coming years. As I said in our first reading kōrero we need to look at this issue holistically and acknowledge that the drivers of drug abuse are poverty and marginalisation. We can never truly end drug harm in this country unless we eliminate poverty unless we end homelessness unless we put a stop to domestic and sexual violenceThat is why we remain concerned with the Smokefree generation policy which would prohibit the sale of tobacco products to anyone born after 1 January 2009—in short meaning anyone 13 years or younger will never legally be able to buy smoked tobacco products in their lifetime. Our concern is that this could promote the rise of a black market for tobacco products leading to associated issues with crime safety and control of products for younger people. We acknowledge that the bill doesn't contain possession offences but possession offences aren't the only charges that can cause harm for innocent people and undermine Māori communities. So supply charges could be used against older siblings or whānau members who also look to share tobacco with younger whānau members.We are confused with the decision to ban smoked tobacco products but to continue to allow nicotine vaping products. By allowing vaping products Government is acknowledging that it would be irresponsible to completely ban tobacco products as banning drugs simply doesn't work; yet there is far too little research on the risks of vaping and we believe it's irresponsible to codify vaping in legislation as a safe alternative to smoking when there's not enough evidence to conclusively say that it's safer.One of our key goals is reducing the attractiveness of tobacco products as we said earlier. It's also important that Te Paati Māori place these concerns on record as everyone knows it is tangata whenua who will disproportionately suffer the health and social harms associated with the prohibition of drugs. We believe a review of the legislation will be needed to ascertain if these concerns come to pass. However we acknowledge the balance that this bill strikes and the strong mitigating factors that help reduce the chances of the black market taking hold in our whānau.We recognise the extraordinary leadership of our hauora champions and thank them for engaging with us on this kaupapa—extremely engaging. We are confident in the Smokefree action plan and are grateful for the roadmap it lays down to eliminate tobacco harm but at the end of the day this issue will be won or lost in the hearts and minds of our people. They have the power and as we have seen over the last 20 years they are using it. It is our role in this House to advance kaupapa that creates a social and legal environment that enables our whānau to live happy and healthy lives so that drug abuse isn't even a feature of our reality.So we the members of Parliament in this place have the power to do that and we're quite happy to support that. We get on and let's use it. Kia ora rā.