Simpson ScottSCOTT SIMPSON (National—Coromandel): I too want to join with colleagues across the House who are supporting this third reading of the bill. I had the privilege of sitting on the Health Committee in the last Parliament and during the time that this bill was being considered by the select committee in the last Parliament we also had an opportunity to visit Australia. The Health Committee was chosen to participate in a visit to Australia and one of the things that the select committee focused on was discussions with various health organisations in Australia and also the Australian Department of Health. At that stage it had not actually been very long since the plain packaging legislation in Australia had been introduced back in December 2012 I think it was. So at that stage the results were really still out in terms of whether the impact had been as great or as widely spread as was expected. I noted just recently that since that visit actually the statistics that have come out of Australia are now undeniable. Back in July of this year Kylie Lindorff from Cancer Council Victoria visited New Zealand. She was able to present to the public of New Zealand some really I thought useful statistics. Amongst them was that since Australia's introduction of a similar regime to the one that we are about to implement that legislation has now been credited with the largest drop in smoking rates in 20 years in Australia. It is simple effective and very meaningful. Kylie Lindorff went on to tell New Zealand media that what Australians still refer to as plain packaging but we are now calling standardised packaging is working much better than they had ever expected. The number of Australians smoking since the introduction of that legislation had dropped by 13 percent in 2 years. It is perfectly logical to assume that we could expect similar results here in New Zealand. Studies in Australia have shown since the introduction of its legislation that at least a quarter of that drop is down to making the cigarette packaging unappealing to the eye. When the select committee was considering and hearing submissions from a number of submitters one of the submissions that I remember being of particular interest was from a graphic designer who gave us evidence on exactly what the packaging should look like. Of course we came very quickly to an understanding that plain" was not the right term. If we are to think about carrying this legislation further we might like to as a House consider at some stage the actual cigarette sticks themselves. There was actually some quite compelling evidence that showed that if we were to change the cigarette stick from being white with a cork-coloured butt filter—imagine if you will a khaki or a horrible colour. I dare not mention a colour because it might—Hon David Parker: Your tie—National Party blue.SCOTT SIMPSON: Oh no. I was thinking more of a khaki green or a shameless red or something like that with a black butt. If we were to change the cigarette colours to that then in fact that might have a further positive impact in terms of reducing smoking. This is a good bill. I am very pleased to have been part of the select committee process that has brought it to the House. It has been a good process. I commend it."