Lotu-Iiga SamSMOKE-FREE ENVIRONMENTS (TOBACCO PLAIN PACKAGING) AMENDMENT BILLSecond ReadingHon Peseta SAM LOTU-IIGA (Associate Minister of Health): I move That the Smoke-free Environments (Tobacco Plain Packaging) Amendment Bill be now read a second time. I begin by thanking the members of the Health Committee for their thorough consideration of this bill and their suggestions for its improvement. Can I also thank the Hon Dame Tariana Turia who saw this bill through its first reading and was a huge supporter of it in the last Parliament.The committee has recommended that the bill proceed with amendments and it is timely that this bill should now proceed. A number of countries have taken similar steps to standardise tobacco products and packaging so we are in good company. Progressing the bill through its next stage today is showing that New Zealand is committed to putting tobacco into plain standardised packaging.Tobacco products kill New Zealanders. Every year 4500 to 5000 people die prematurely. Smoking is a leading avoidable cause of premature deaths in New Zealand so we want to stop New Zealanders from smoking and we are going to take every practical step to achieve that. Most people in society will know a friend or a family member who has died prematurely. I think the good thing about this bill is that it will also prevent young people—and others—taking up smoking through standardised packaging of tobacco. Tobacco products already carry large graphic health warnings and cigarettes and tobacco can no longer be displayed at point of sale or advertised in any media. Now we are removing the last marketing tool and consigning the cigarette pack to a plain green-brown colour stripped of its bright packaging and brand imagery. A lot of time and money goes into designing products and packs to appeal both to existing smokers and also to the next generation. Allowing tobacco products to be advertised or promoted in any way is inconsistent with our Government's wider goal of making New Zealand smoke-free by 2025.The bill is intended to tightly control the design and the physical appearance of cigarettes and tobacco products and any packaging used or intended to be used with those products. The bill continues to allow manufacturer information and brand names to be printed on the packs but only in a tightly controlled way. The bill is essentially a piece of high-level enabling legislation. It creates the new regulation-making powers so detail of the product design appearance packaging and labelling can be developed.On World Smokefree Day last month I released a consultation document with proposals that mandatory health warnings will cover at least 75 percent of the front of the packages. It also proposes that all tobacco imagery be removed and that brand names will be allowed but the regulations will standardise how and where the printing is on each packet. A final decision on those detailed regulations will be made after the consultation period ends next month and submissions have been carefully considered. We want to get the detail right around this and we want a set of regulations that puts into effect the intent of this bill. The bill generated a large number of submissions—in fact over 15500 submissions of which there were approximately 200 substantive submissions. A number of common themes emerged including the damaging impacts of tobacco on health. There was concern shown for children living in the homes of New Zealand's 550000 smokers. Those children are at the highest risk of taking up smoking and it is a particular concern for Māori Pacific and other high-risk groups. The importance of standardised packaging as a key plank in New Zealand's overall comprehensive tobacco control programme was also raised and the Government's view is that the standardised packaging is part of a suite of tobacco control measures and quit-smoking services as well as the increases in taxation that we passed in this Parliament earlier this year.Another focus of the submissions was the anticipated impacts of standardised packaging. A large number of submitters including the World Health Organization (WHO) are convinced that plain packaging reduces the appeal the social acceptance and the approval of smoking and tobacco products. These submitters want warning images and messages to be more noticeable and effective. They point to an extensive body of research and international evidence and reviews that give confidence that the bill will work here as intended over time. I am pleased to be able to inform the House that more evidence and evaluation reports have been tabled and results from a post-implementation review endorsed by the Australian Office of Best Practice Regulation are continually coming in from Australia that show that plain packaging is working as intended and is making a real difference to Australians.Yes it is true that plain packaging on its own is not responsible for all of the continued fall in smoking rates in Australia where the smoking prevalence is around 12 percent but an econometric study published in Australia looked at a significant period of time before and after the introduction of plain packaging and found that plain packaging alone was responsible for 0.55 percentage points out of the 2.2 percentage point decline in smoking prevalence over the period of that study. In other words standardised packaging alone was responsible for fully one quarter of the measured decline. Submitters were also concerned about New Zealand's international obligations and the WHO and several other submitters were strongly supportive of the legislation as consistent with our obligations and our commitments to the United Nations Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. On that point our Government's position is extremely clear: New Zealand can implement standardised tobacco packaging in a manner that is consistent with our international trade obligations and we will. There are three substantive changes to the bill as it has been reported back to this House. The Health Committee recommended widening the concern for harmful social economic and health effects of smoking to include an additional and important cultural dimension. This is to be reflected in the amended purposes of the Act section and in the scope of new warning messages that will be required under it. It also wanted to ensure that the existing minimum quantities in which cigarettes and tobacco can be sold are maintained in the principal Act. The committee also wanted to clarify rules around the transitional period when distributors and retailers can sell the branded packs.The committee has also made a number of small positive changes key among them the title of the bill and the use of the term plain packaging". This legislation will undoubtedly standardise the appearance of tobacco products and packages to prevent them from being used for marketing and product promotion purposes. The committee has therefore recommended that we use the more accurate and descriptive term "standardised packaging". This bill is designed to save New Zealanders' lives. This bill is another tool to fight against the slow relentless killer that is tobacco. This bill helps people to quit and prevents others from smoking. I am pleased to support all of the committee's changes to the bill which I believe are sensible and well considered. I commend this bill to the House."