McClay Todd: Customs and Excise (Tobacco Products—Budget Measures) Amendment Bill — Second Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
McClay Todd: Customs and Excise (Tobacco Products—Budget Measures) Amendment Bill — Second Reading 
[Sitting date: 25 September 2012. Volume:684;Page:5589. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
TODD McCLAY (National—Rotorua) 
: 
 It is a pleasure to rise and speak on this bill the Customs and Excise (Tobacco Products—Budget Measures) Amendment Bill. I was going to jump up and say to the last speaker Iain Lees-Galloway that he should be ashamed of himself for bringing such politics into a debate where all of the House is joined together to do the right thing for New Zealanders. But I have decided not to do that and the reason for that is that in the Finance and Expenditure Committee we worked extremely well together on this issue. We had a number of submitters who came before us who asked the committee to do more in these areas but easily we were able to agree on what it was this bill was trying to achieve and what it was as a committee that we wanted to happen and we were able to also agree on some suggestions to the Government about further ways forward. 
The reason for this is that smoking is New Zealand’s leading preventable cause of death and if we break down those who smoke of particular concern are younger people but Maori are disproportionately overrepresented in these statistics and that is a real concern. An estimated 4500 to 5000 New Zealanders die every year due to smoking or exposure to second-hand smoke. So up to 5000 New Zealanders lose their lives because of tobacco. We know that half of all long-term smokers die of a smoking-related illness losing an average of 15 years of their lives. I will say that again. Half of all long-term smokers lose an average of 15 years of their lives. Six hundred and fifty thousand New Zealanders or one in every five people over the age of 15 continue to put their lives at risk. What is really concerning is that 155000 of these smokers are Maori and 45 percent of the Maori population aged 15 to 64 smoke. 
I agree with the last speaker in this debate that as a Parliament all parties—and all New Zealanders—need to focus on this and we need to do so much more about these appalling statistics. What we heard at the select committee from submitters was their concern and we also heard from those who smoke. We heard why they smoke and we also heard from some who want to give up. Some of them said it was their right to continue to smoke if they chose to do so. But we know that about 80 percent of everybody who smokes wish they had never started. So this legislation with an increase of 10 percent per year for 4 years in the price of tobacco through excise duty is as much about making people stop smoking as it is about making them never start smoking. 
An interesting statistic I would like to bring to the House is around young people. Smoking among 15 to 64-year-olds fell significantly between 2006 and 2009 from 24 percent to about 21 percent. Well that is a decrease but 21 percent of people that age still smoking is too high. The proportion of school students who smoke daily has fallen from 15.6 percent in 1999 to 4.1 percent in 2011. That is an outstanding statistic because the work that the previous Government has done and that this Government has done over the last 4 years is about saying to young people that this is not a choice that is good for you. Price is a very important part of that. 
I am the father of four young children. I hope that they never smoke. I have to tell you that at the end of this process when the price of a cigarette is about $1 it is going to have a greater effect on young people and their habits than almost anything else we can do at the moment. I guarantee it. If you go to any schoolyard and walk around and say to young people “Can I have a dollar?” you would be hard-pressed to get one from any of them. Some years ago to say “Can I have a cigarette?’ was not equated to the amount of money they cost and I am sure that in schoolyards around New Zealand and in other situations they were shared freely. 
Although there were people who came to the committee and said that we were targeting smokers and that it was unfair on them and we were putting an extra burden on them actually we know that 80 percent of people wish they had never started and want to stop. Every single time the price goes up New Zealanders are moved to seek help to stop smoking. Therefore I support this legislation and I support it because it is going to encourage more New Zealanders not to smoke and it is going to encourage greater numbers of younger New Zealanders not to start smoking or at the very least to not give these very expensive cancer sticks away to others. 
I want to finish here but I will say that off and on I have been a smoker for some years. This is not one of these free-for-all declarations that the Hon Tau Henare makes in the House—and I wish him the very best with his challenge in this—but I would always say that I gave up smoking almost as easily as I started. I never made it a point to smoke in front of my family my children because I know that if they saw me smoking they would grow up thinking it was OK. It would normalise it. Much of the work this Parliament has done is to take the normality of smoking away so that it is not something that is as acceptable it is not something that is normal. But through support—actually not through the support of the Government; I paid myself but there is support available—I found these tablets called Champix which changed things for me and for a year and a half I have not gone near a cigarette nor do I want one. 
So I encourage anybody who may be listening to this or who may read this—or the four of them out there who have got TV on listening to Parliament at the moment—if you are smokers to go and see your doctor. Go and ask the question and you will be surprised at the amount of support that is there and you will not be a statistic—well you are not a statistic Mr Deputy Speaker but you the people out in the real world who do not understand that we cannot use the word “you”. Anybody in the real world at the moment should go and talk to their doctor and seek support because it is not as difficult as it seems and there is a huge amount of support there. I thank you Mr Deputy Speaker for the time and I look forward to the Committee stage where we might discuss this bill in greater detail.