Harawira Hone: General Debate 
Harawira Hone: General Debate 
[Volume:657;Page:6804] 
HONE HARAWIRA (Maori Party—Te Tai Tokerau) 
: 
 Kia ora tatou katoa e te Whare. 
Hon Mita Ririnui 
: Kia ora. 
HONE HARAWIRA 
: Tena koe the Hon Mita Ririnui. If it is true that 5000 Kiwis die from tobacco every year it is also true that tobacco companies are directly responsible for the deaths of 100000 New Zealand citizens in the last 25 years. That is why the Maori Party supports every effort to stop this appalling waste of life and to break the cycle of addiction that blights our society. 
There are 5000 deaths every year from tobacco. It accounts for 25 percent of all cancer deaths in Aotearoa and it is a major cause of blindness and respiratory illnesses diseases of the urinary tract pelvis bladder and the digestive tract. Forty-five percent of Maori 32 percent of Pasifika 22 percent of Pakeha and 12 percent of Asians smoke. One in every three Maori dies from smoking cigarettes. That is why the Maori Party is doing everything it can to reduce tobacco consumption and to hold accountable those companies that are responsible for the deaths of those 5000 Kiwis every year. 
Following on from the World Health Organization recommendations of a mix of taxation cessation health promotion legislation and research strategies Tariana Turia co-leader of the Maori Party and the Associate Minister of Health responsible for tobacco control has called for a review of smoking cessation programmes an increase in tobacco tax and a ban on the display of tobacco products here in Aotearoa. Such a law was enacted recently in New South Wales and will be enacted next year in the Northern Territory and Australian Capital Territory and in Victoria and Tasmania in 2011. Tobacco displays are a very devious and potent form of marketing a killer product normalising cigarettes in the eyes of vulnerable kids and hooking them into buying smokes from a very young age. Banning displays works; we know that because when Saskatchewan did it smoking rates actually dropped 25 percent in just 6 years. 
And just this morning the Maori Affairs Committee approved my request for a full inquiry into the tobacco industry in Aotearoa and the consequences of tobacco use for Maori. And for that I thank the National Party leadership and in particular Prime Minister John Key his deputy Bill English and the committee chairman Tau Henare for supporting this because if they had not it would have died on the table. This inquiry will be New Zealand’s greatest opportunity to have tobacco companies explain their actions of promoting and maintaining the tobacco addiction that leads to these horrific deaths. Select committee hearings will begin in 2010 giving us plenty of lead-in time to organise cancer patients whanau health researchers health agencies tobacco control groups and the tobacco industry itself to come before the committee. We hope to call Associate Minister Turia as well to hear about what she is doing and to get her advice on how best our work can dovetail with her plans. We will also be taking this inquiry on the road to make it easier for whanau to attend and I have no doubt that by the time we finally get the tobacco company representatives in front of the committee we will have gathered enough testimony to really take them to task. 
To be brutally frank I would like to lynch these tobacco company executives. I have watched too many people die horrible deaths because of their addiction to tobacco and I have seen too much pain and heartache in those left behind to want to be objective about this. I have heard too many chilling comments from tobacco executives such as: “We don’t smoke this shit. We reserve that right to the young the poor the black and the stupid.” to have any respect for these people at all. 
Hopefully with the help of the people of New Zealand the support of all my colleagues on the Maori Affairs Committee and the determination of the members of this House we can finally bring an end to all this unnecessary waste of beautiful life. Tena koe. Kia ora tatou katoa.