Parata Hekia: Excise and Excise-equivalent Duties Table (Tobacco Products) Amendment Bill — First Reading Second Reading Third Reading 
Parata Hekia: Excise and Excise-equivalent Duties Table (Tobacco Products) Amendment Bill — First Reading Second Reading Third Reading 
[Volume:662;Page:10597] 
HEKIA PARATA (National) 
:  
Tena koe e te Mana Whakawa huri noa i to tatou Whare tena tatou katoa. I am very proud to be standing if not in unanimity as the previous speaker indicated then in near unity and definite consensus on the Excise and Excise-equivalent Duties Table (Tobacco Products) Amendment Bill. We have heard tonight from a wide range of speakers across the House. Many have shared personal and family stories that help affirm that the decision we are making in respect of this bill tonight is correct. Many people have been very honest in sharing their personal experiences in respect of tobacco and smoking and I think that the House is both honoured and humbled by those genuine and personal experiences. 
We have also heard a raft of statistics that tells us what the collective experience has been. We have heard about what the research and evidence supports in respect of the curse and scourge that is tobacco. We know that it is the single biggest cause of preventable deaths amongst New Zealanders. It takes a very high toll in Maori and Pacific communities. One in two Maori smoke and almost one-third of Pacific Islanders smoke. We know that those deaths are preventable and that Maori experience a 10 percent greater mortality rate from smoking-related deaths than non-Maori. We know that Maori are three times more likely than non-Maori to die of lung cancer. In Pacific communities 8 percent of deaths in females and 19 percent of deaths in males could be avoided if smoking was eliminated. 
We have heard tonight about the high economic and fiscal costs that smoking subjects our community to but we have also touched on the high social costs it incurs. We have heard stories of families who have suffered not just in the present but through generations. So the stand we are taking tonight as a Parliament which comes after several years of incremental progress is a very important step towards stopping lives being lost to this curse. 
As has been noted the bill provides for incremental increases in costs. We are very conscious that there is a very high incidence of smoking in low socio-economic communities and families and that the impact will hit them hardest. We need to be as supportive as possible in recognising that smoking is an addiction. Almost all the smokers I know wish they did not smoke and that they could stop. We need to be aware that the decision we make tonight will have a significant impact but that there is a lot of support available for people. This change will help not only personal health but the health of whanau and communities the health of our nation and society and the health of our future. 
I am particularly supportive of this bill because I have spent a good deal of my life trying to persuade friends and whanau to stop smoking. I have spent a good deal of my life telling women whom I consider otherwise intelligent to stop smoking. 
Hon Darren Hughes 
: Name them. 
HEKIA PARATA 
: Mr Hughes suggests I name them but I have so many friends and such a big whanau and they are all so intelligent that it would take us well into the extraordinary urgency and we might find that unnecessary. 
I am really pleased that this bill is another nail in the coffin of tobacco smoking in our society and I wholeheartedly support it. I have sisters and brothers who still smoke. I hope they are watching this and I hope they are committing to stopping smoking but more important I have nieces and nephews who have started smoking. I want them now to consider how important it is for them to stop smoking and recognise that it is not cool and does not look glamorous. 
The Hon Ruth Dyson recalled an earlier day when smoking was portrayed as being sexy and glamorous and one need only watch the series  
Mad Men 
—the title is particularly apt—to see that that was the case. The series harks back to an earlier time when smoking was seen as something people did if they were really cool—and it was mad and we need to stop it. We need to be able to help young people to stop before they start. We need them to recognise that they cannot afford it because it is beyond their financial means and because in terms of their long-term health it is beyond their means. 
As Minister Turia indicated earlier we have to be concerned about our whare tamariki our ability and capacity to give birth to future healthy generations. Tobacco kills that opportunity and it creates a very poor start for children who are carried in the womb of a mother who continues to smoke. We need to be supportive of every measure that will help people who are addicted to this terrible scourge to give up and we know that Quitline and many other agencies are available to help them do so. 
Tonight we have had many speakers talk about the costs about the opportunities and about what this bill provides in a further step along the path of creating a healthy New Zealand. I would like to end as every other speaker has begun. First of all I pay tribute to Associate Minister of Health Tariana Turia who has fought this fight when it was very unpopular as well as tonight when we are warmed by the popularity of the support. I commend her for recognising that in many ways the least of it is the fiscal cost issue and that mostly it is about the health of our communities about the health of our whanau and about the health of our babies—those who have been born and those who are yet to be born. So Minister nga mihi nui ki a koe e waha nei i tenei kaupapa [ 
huge acknowledgments to you who are responsible for this policy 
]. 
To the Maori Affairs Committee to my tungane—well 
 
 he tungane katoa kei runga i tera komiti [ 
they are all brothers on that committee 
]— but I commend Tau Henare who every day struggles—[ 
Interruption 
] Simon Bridges is asking me to remember that there are others on the select committee. First of all I commend Tau Henare who every day struggles with this particular fight. He is winning the fight because he recognises that it is important to stop smoking and to be the role model he needs to be to his children to his mokopuna and to his community. 
I commend my tungane Hone Harawira who brought the tobacco inquiry to the Maori Affairs Committee who pummelled them into agreeing to have this kaupapa and who has gone around Aotearoa New Zealand carrying the flag on many kaupapa but on this one in particular ki a koe Hone nga mihi nui ki a koe [ 
to you Hone a huge acknowledgment to you 
]. 
To the rest of the boys on the Maori Affairs Committee— 
Hone Harawira 
: Name them.