Hague KevinKEVIN HAGUE (Green): I have spoken in the House on a number of occasions about some of the settings that this Government has. One of its settings is to shrink the size of the State to withdraw from functions that New Zealanders have traditionally collectivised and determined that as a society we will take care of each other through. National has been pulling back those boundaries. Another of its settings has been that where that is no longer possible—so where it is politically untenable to shrink the size of the State where public opinion has mounted to the point that some kind of action is required—National has responded not with substantive action but with gesture a small step in the direction that is required.It was interesting to hear the Minister Peseta Sam Lotu-Iiga speak about the compelling evidence of harm that tobacco is causing in this country. Indeed Minister it is causing that harm. But rather than responding with a comprehensive suite of measures National is responding again with gesture—with small steps taken as small and as slowly as the Government can get away with. The Minister gave a list of countries that are moving on plain packaging but I want to echo the Hon Annette King and her comments to say that New Zealand at one point was a leader on tobacco control—a leader on actually limiting the damage being caused by tobacco in our country. We have stepped back under this Government from that role as a leader. We are now not even a fast follower; we are a slow follower.The other speakers have rightly praised Tariana Turia and I want to add to that list my praise for Helen Clark for Annette King and for Hone Harawira who have been leaders on tobacco control from this House. But I also want to extend to the Minister in the chair the Hon Peseta Sam Lotu-Iiga the challenge and the encouragement to actually step forward to become a leader in this area too. We have as a Parliament as a Government all endorsed this fantastic goal of having a smoke-free Aotearoa by 2025. We are currently not on track for achieving that goal and yet when experts have recommended more aggressive excise tax increases the Government has responded with the least measure that it can. Although experts have all endorsed the effectiveness of this standardised packaging bill in front of us today we have actually had 2 years of delays when in fact the Government's reason for the delay or the reason it espoused for the delay—fear of investor-State dispute settlement mechanisms—really has been proven to be nothing more than a paper tiger as all of the advocates for tobacco control were saying from the beginning.So the smoke-free Aotearoa 2025 goal is one that we should be pursuing not with timid and isolated steps but with comprehensive measures. I want to see this bill passed as quickly as it possibly can be and I want to see the Minister in the chair actually step forward with other measures. How about some supply-side control? How about a register of retailers? How about all of those other measures that the Māori Affairs Committee recommended to this House? The submissions that the Health Committee heard on this bill were all strongly in favour of the bill with the exception I have to say of those from the tobacco industry itself and its proxies—those individuals who appeared before the select committee with sponsorship from the tobacco industry which had supported their research". The evidence of effectiveness that the select committee heard was compelling. On that basis one would have hoped that the Government could move faster.I want to say that the Green Party certainly supports the change in the name of the bill. I am very pleased to know that the Government and all the National Party members will be voting for the bill itself and for that change.I want to highlight our disagreement with the New Zealand First minority view in the select committee report. The New Zealand First minority view says that New Zealand First believes that there are "more effective" measures. Well I would like to know what those would be because if there are measures that are more effective than this one which we know has great evidence of effectiveness let us actually debate those. Let us debate them and pass them into law as quickly as we can.The truth is that New Zealand First has generally voted against tobacco control measures. My friend Barbara Stewart has several Supplementary Order Papers in her name and she has spoken in this debate about those. I have to say that I recognise the difficult situation that Barbara Stewart may be in in relation to this debate but I have to say that the Green Party will be opposing the Supplementary Order Papers in her name. What those Supplementary Order Papers do is to further delay the implementation of this bill and as Iain Lees-Galloway has said this is a bill that was introduced in December 2013 and its first reading was in February 2014. The industry has known that this was coming. Barbara Stewart said in her contribution that there are members in the House who have not been small-business owners. Well I have been. I have owned and managed multiple small businesses—and large businesses for that matter—and I can say with confidence that small-business owners are perfectly capable of interpreting the fact that a bill is before the House and that most of the parties in the House are saying that they want it to be implemented without further delay.I agree with the contribution that Iain Lees-Galloway made—that in fact there has been enough delay already. I am reminded of the tactics and the strategy that the industry has used from the word go—from the Doll and Hill study back in the 1950s which first made the definitive connection between tobacco consumption and lung cancer. The industry has from the word go attempted first of all to deny the findings of the research then to obfuscate—that is what we saw in the evidence before the select committee—and finally to delay. Its sole motivation is profit maximisation and protection of its commercial position and I do not believe that this House should facilitate that purpose. Enough delay already—this bill should be passed forthwith."