Henare Tau: Excise and Excise-equivalent Duties Table (Tobacco Products) Amendment Bill — First Reading Second Reading Third Reading 
Henare Tau: Excise and Excise-equivalent Duties Table (Tobacco Products) Amendment Bill — First Reading Second Reading Third Reading 
[Volume:662;Page:10583] 
Hon TAU HENARE (National) 
: 
 As most probably one of the only real smokers in this House— 
Hon Member 
: Have another Champix. 
Hon TAU HENARE 
: Yes I am on Champix. I am 98 percent or 97 percent smoke-free and very proud of it. I am on the Champix. [ 
Interruption 
] I tell my colleagues to be quiet. I thank the drug company Pfizer. I think I speak from a position of authority. I am soon to be 50 years old. 
Hon Member 
: You’re what? 
Hon TAU HENARE 
: I know hard as it is to believe. For over half of my life I have been a smoker—I have lived over half of my life as a smoker. Our family has a long history of supporting the tobacco industry. Some would have said that I would be put out by the dastardly deeds of a person who was going to increase the taxes on tobacco but I am not. I am not a zealot unlike some people I know—kia ora Hone—but I think it is a good thing that we do this. The issue is about the health of a nation not the health of one individual person but the health of a nation. I think that shows how times have changed. 
The Hon Ruth Dyson mentioned a debate from not so long ago when my brother-in-law Tukoroirangi Morgan stood next to me in this House while I was a full-blown 100 percent smoker and introduced the Smoke-free Environments (Enhanced Protection) Amendment Bill which became the Hon Steve Chadwick’s bill. I railed against my brother-in-law. Fancy doing that to a large portion of people in our community! Fancy picking on the poor! Fancy picking on— 
Hon Ruth Dyson 
: You were in the same party too weren’t you? 
Hon TAU HENARE 
: Yes we were in the same party. He had the temerity to put forward a bill that now would probably get 90-odd percent support in the House. 
When I was out of Parliament and the smoke-free workplace legislation came in I too used to run up and down spewing forth utter shock that workers could not have their smoko breaks or have a smoke when they wanted to. But now I would hazard a guess that a very large proportion of this country would not want to go back to those days even though some of us pine for the old days. 
The issue of raising the excise on tobacco has been an interesting one. Small increases over a period of time do not work. It is the large increase that works; the large very strong hit works. My fear is that the lag between the 10 percent rise in tailor-made cigarettes each year over a 3-year period may not work. There has to be some serious thought over the next 12 months or so about the next increase and the next increase after that. Is it to stay at 10 percent or is it to rise even more? By watching the news I heard that by 2013 a packet of 25 cigarettes will cost people around $17 or $18. One has to be mad to think that one would fork out 20 bucks for a packet of smokes but let me tell members that the habit is so strong that people will spend $20 on a packet of smokes. It is an addiction. 
I want the House to consider something especially my colleagues on the front bench and those who sit around the Cabinet table. Although we feel good about doing something as we are doing tonight in trying to help people quit and in trying to make sure that young people do not start smoking there are products on the market today that are not allowed in the country because they are supposedly unsafe. An e-cigarette is one of those products. It is not possible to get an e-cigarette with a cartridge of nicotine in it because it is supposedly— 
Simon Bridges 
: That’s a pen you’re holding. 
Hon TAU HENARE 
: Yes this is a pen I am holding. I ask members to get this: supposedly it is not safe to use e-cigarettes but we are allowed to buy cigarettes in this country and we know that ain’t safe. So what am I getting at? We do not do enough to break that habit of addiction—we do not do enough. We spend millions of dollars on cessation programmes and I have to say that the evidence is starting to stack up that they actually do not work as well as we may believe. 
Dr Jackie Blue 
: Oh no! 
Hon TAU HENARE 
: Oh yes. 
Dr Jackie Blue 
: Oh no! 
Hon TAU HENARE 
: Oh yes. I am one of the privileged ones who have— 
Iain Lees-Galloway 
: That will look good in  
Hansard 
. 
Hon TAU HENARE 
: Well it may look good in  
Hansard 
; it may not look good in Hansard. But the fact is the figures are starting to show that the millions of dollars we spend on cessation programmes—not all of the cessation programmes but the majority of cessation programmes of the last few years—do not work and they may have been a waste of money. It would have been better to subsidise some of the drugs. It would have better to allow some of the products into this country rather than spend our money on those programmes. 
I am very glad that there will be a bigger increase on roll-your-own cigarettes. It is a well-known fact that people smoke them because they are cheap and they last a bit longer than a packet of 25 cigarettes. 
I want to send a message that is not so much about who does what in this area or who gets the kudos. I congratulate my relation my colleague Hone Harawira for bringing to the Maori Affairs Committee an issue that we may have our differences about in terms of how to get there but we agree on the final objective and that is to be as smoke-free as possible. I also thank my National colleagues. 
I have seen the blogs. I have seen the comments on my very popular Facebook page. One said “Another win for the Maori Party.” I tell members that it would not have been a win for the Maori Party if it had not been for National. Without National this measure would not have gone through. So while we stand and talk about the poor health and the disease out there that is tobacco I thank National for taking on board the submissions and the pleas made by the Hon Tariana Turia. I also remind the Government and the House in general that the Maori Affairs Committee is doing a sterling job in its inquiry into the use of tobacco and its effect on Maoridom. Kia ora.