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:11417. 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 first time. Each day in New Zealand 12 people die prematurely from smoking-related illnesses—12 people. Each year smoking kills between 4500 and 5000 people prematurely; that is the population of a town like Foxton wiped out off the map gone prematurely every year. They die from lung cancer from heart disease and from strokes. They die from emphysema from chronic bronchitis and from cancers of the mouth pharynx and oesophagus. This relentless killer takes too many of our loved ones too soon. So the Customs and Excise (Tobacco Products—Budget Measures) Amendment Bill is about saving lives. It is as simple as that. Our family our friends and our whānau are dying from a habit that we can do something about in this House today. This bill raises the tobacco excise duty by 10 percent each year for 4 consecutive years from 1 January 2017. Raising the excise duty on tobacco is one of the most effective measures that Governments can take to reduce the harm caused by smoking. This bill will save lives and protect our future generations. It will help New Zealand become smoke-free by 2025.The bill technically amends the Customs and Excise Act and also amends or affects the Children Young Persons and Their Families Act the Education Act 1989 the Income Tax Act the New Zealand Superannuation and Retirement Income Act the Social Security Act and the Veterans’ Support Act. The amendments contained in the bill amend the Customs and Excise Act by continuing increases in excise and excise-equivalent duty on tobacco products. This Government has already raised the tax on tobacco for 6 successive years and when passed this bill will lead to a decade of 10 percent increases in tax.So what has that meant for price? Well 6 years ago a packet of 20 cigarettes was around $10. Today it is around $23 and by 2020 it will be around $32. What you may ask is the impact of that price increase? For example what has been the effect on the consumption of cigarettes? We know that in the last 5 years consumption has declined 25 percent. Critically it has meant our daily smoking rates have declined consistently over time to where it now stands at 15 percent of adults or about 550000 people. For every 1 percent decrease in smoking rates we see over 35000 smokers stop smoking. That is good for the lives of those New Zealanders it is good for their families and it is good for our communities who live with this burden. I am particularly pleased that the price increases have had a huge effect on the uptake of smoking by children. The smoking rate for the 15 to 19-year-old age group is now under 9 percent and for year 10 students that smoking rate is now well under 3 percent. The increases in price have had a dramatic effect on those young people taking up smoking. So the cost to individuals and families is huge.I spoke to a friend recently who spoke about the death of her father due to lung cancer after a lifetime of smoking. It was a slow death over 3 years and watching him turn from a rugged South Island farmer to someone who was basically having the air sucked out of him by lung cancer was disturbing for this friend of mine. And those are the sorts of social impacts that smoking has not just on the person who smokes but certainly on family members and the wider community. Over half of all long-term smokers will die of a smoking-related illness and those who die will lose on average at least 12 years of their life. Those who die in middle age will lose on average 23 years of their lives. The benefits of quitting smoking are quite clear. For example if you quit before the age of 40 the risk of dying of a smoke-related disease is reduced by 90 percent—90 percent. The personal cost to every individual smoker if you smoke a pack per day is approximately $7300 in one year.But the tangible costs of smoking to our country are also huge. The costs include lost workforce production and absenteeism. It costs our country about $2.5 billion just because of smoking alone. This is small in comparison with the intangible costs which can be up to $11 billion and include lost years of life loss of quality of life and the effect on those relationships that I spoke about.I want to remind New Zealanders that smoking remains the country’s single biggest health issue. It is the biggest cause of premature deaths in this country every year and we here as lawmakers in the House of Representatives can make a difference to the lives of New Zealanders. This bill goes a long way to addressing this chronic health issue. Price increases through tax remains the most effective tool to address the chronic social and economic costs of smoking tobacco. I urge all members of this House to do the right thing for New Zealanders today and support this bill.