Rich Katherine: Smoke-free Environments Amendment Bill — Referral to Health Committee Procedure In Committee 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Rich Katherine: Smoke-free Environments Amendment Bill — Referral to Health Committee Procedure In Committee 
[Sitting date: 15 October 2003. Volume:612;Page:9216. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
KATHERINE RICH (National) 
: 
 I think that for many members on this side of the Chamber the debate tonight is very much tainted by the knowledge that the Government spent $2.1 million lobbying MPs to try to get them to support a member’s bill. That has never happened before and the Government will not explain why it did that. The member in the chair who is the sponsor of the bill has not taken a call to explain why that money was given why there was an expressed objective that the task of the Action on Smoking and Health organisation was to lobby individual MPs on a member’s bill. Out in the streets a lot of Labour members have said: “Look I know you’re concerned about this but this is a private member’s bill.” as if somehow that takes away its significance. But now we know that it is not really a member’s bill; it is a Government bill in disguise and the Government has taken $2.1 million from the taxpayer in order to lobby MPs to try to get them to support it. Richard Prebble has quite correctly described that as corruption. I can think of no other word to describe it. 
Tonight we are discussing an issue that is more about freedom of choice—freedom to decide where we go and what we do. Yes Governments will always play a part in establishing general regulations for conduct in this country but they do not get involved in the minutiae of how we lead our daily lives. They do not say to people—except in this case—that they must eat San Bran and go for a compulsory jog every day. With this bill the Government is getting into the day-to-day lives of New Zealanders when most people are big enough to make up their own minds and make choices about their lives with minimal Government involvement. 
For this bill I went and did a bit of research in my hometown of Dunedin. I went on a pub-crawl of sorts and spoke to a number of small business operators. They are described in the bill as proprietors of licensed premises but they are small business operators. I spoke to non-smokers and smokers to staff and publicans and I could not find anybody who supported the bill. Some of those small pubs will go out of business as a result of this legislation—particularly small country pubs. Many that I have listed in an amendment I am putting forward say they will go out of business because of it. There is one small pub the Vulcan Hotel in St Bathans where sometimes in the middle of winter it is incredibly cold whose clientele swear that some people could go out and have a near-death experience simply because of going out for a cigarette. I suspect that those people will stay at home and a lot of those businesses will be closed down as a result. 
Let us remember that small country pubs and a lot of pubs in towns like Dunedin where I live are focal points for their communities. They are meeting places for their local communities. That is what is at risk here. I remember speaking to one old chap by the name of Ron at the Waterloo Hotel. He said: “I went to war and now I am wondering whether or not I should just have handed my gun to the Germans because the country that I fought for is starting to take away some of the freedoms that I hold dear.” 
Sitting suspended from 6 p.m. to 7.30 p.m. 
KATHERINE RICH 
: Before the dinner break I was talking about a returned serviceman called Ron whom I met when I visited the Waterloo Hotel in Dunedin. Ron went to World War II and he is now beginning to wonder what he fought for because he feels he is having some of his basic freedoms and pleasures removed from his life. That is what has moved me tonight to put forward a list of amendments—they are set out on Supplementary Order Paper 154—in which I have listed a number of taverns and hotels that would like to be exempted from this bill. These include the Lauder Tavern Glenfalloch Restaurant The Chancellor Dunedin Vulcan Hotel Rydges Queenstown Portsider Tavern Wharf Casino Nugget Point Resort Aspen on Queenstown Blacks Hotel The Statesman Heriot Hotel Moeraki Tavern Valley Lodge Hotel Heffs Hotel Cock and Bull Dunedin Black Dog Gardens Sports Tavern Fitzroy Pub on the Park Waterloo Hotel Oriental Tavern Greater Green Island Town and Country Club Golden Fleece Hotel Paddy’s Café and Bar Famous Kellys Frankton Arm Tavern Grand Tavern The Outback Fraser’s Bar and Grill St Kilda Tavern Normanby Tavern Dicey O’Riley’s Bentley’s Hotel Tippler’s Bar Café North Western Hotel and the Mosgiel Tavern.