Faafoi Kris: Smoke-free Environments (Controls and Enforcement) Amendment Bill — Third Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Faafoi Kris: Smoke-free Environments (Controls and Enforcement) Amendment Bill — Third Reading 
[Sitting date: 14 July 2011. Volume:674;Page:20134. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
KRIS FAAFOI (Labour—Mana) 
: 
 Taloha ni Mr Assistant Speaker Robertson and thank you very much for the opportunity to speak to the third reading of the Smoke-free Environments (Controls and Enforcement) Amendment Bill. No doubt with the great interest that the tobacco industry has taken in this bill some of the executives here in New Zealand will be watching. It is with great pleasure that I can say that we have set a deadline on banning tobacco displays in New Zealand. The clock is ticking and another step has been taken against the harm that tobacco has caused in New Zealand. 
It is an honour to be given the opportunity to speak in the final debate on this bill in the House. This is the next chapter in a significant culture change in public health in New Zealand because we are moving away from smoking tobacco being the norm. There is relatively wide consensus around this House that by 2025 smoking will be considered unacceptable and that New Zealand will be smoke-free. 
Both my parents smoked when I was quite a young age. I am quite happy to say that at that young age we had the foresight to throw our parents’ cigarettes in the rubbish. I am glad to say that even though they disciplined us at the time. I am glad to say that we did that because of the huge hurt and pain that is caused in so many families in New Zealand by the harmful effects of tobacco. Every year 5000 families pay the ultimate price because some of their family members decided to light up. At the moment 700000 New Zealanders smoke. We think of every one of those 5000 families whose family member dies. We heard a very touching story in the House last night from one of my colleagues Louisa Wall about how her father passed away prematurely because he smoked two packets of cigarettes a day. 
The hurt and pain caused by tobacco makes me very proud that I have the opportunity to talk to this bill today. This is another step as I said on the journey. We have also banned smoking in workplaces and bars and as mentioned earlier tobacco sponsorship was banned a couple of decades ago. Today we are banning the display of tobacco products in our shops and service stations. We are looking towards that goal that culture change of having a smoke-free New Zealand by 2025. 
There is obviously some significant work still to do but today is a big step. Banning tobacco displays takes away one of the major weapons that the tobacco industry uses to target our young New Zealanders. It knows that and that is why it fought so hard and pushed so hard against the changes that we are bringing in with this bill. 
On this key issue I am glad to say that with almost the complete support of the House the industry has lost. This House and the members who are supporting these measures make no apologies about that because every day as those 700000 Kiwis light up and every year as those 5000 Kiwi families lose their loved ones the tobacco companies have continued to make huge profits. They have used those profits to target our youngsters to make sure that the industry still has a significant and continuing market for its products although they cause huge and significant harm to New Zealanders. Yes tobacco is a legal product and they use that line quite a lot in all of the correspondence that they send to members of Parliament. As I said today is a big step but we should not shirk our responsibility to make sure that the intentions of this Parliament to ensure that New Zealand is smoke-free continue. 
Can I now look at the area of Pasifika smoking. Tobacco has a disproportionate effect or impact on the Pasifika community and that cannot be understated. Thirty-five percent of Pasifika men smoke and 28 percent of Pasifika women smoke which is well above the national average. Unfortunately for my own Tokelauan culture 42 percent of Tokelauans have registered that they are smokers. Can I first of all congratulate a lot of the Pasifika health watchdogs that have made a significant contribution to the submissions on this bill. I make particular reference to one organisation Tala Pasifika and I have referred to it in earlier contributions on this bill and to the submission made by the programme manager Stephanie Erick. In its submission Tala Pasifika points out some of the concerns around the disproportionate effect of cigarette smoking on Pasifika people which causes premature death disease and illnesses. Around a third of Pasifika people in New Zealand smoke. It went on to say that addressing the issues of tobacco accessibility to youth at-risk populations in New Zealand is a major step towards protecting current and future generations who would otherwise have been vulnerable to the deadly and addictive tobacco products that currently enjoy prominent promotion in retail settings across the country. 
Just to finish on its submission: “To protect our Pacific children and the wider community from being initiated into smoking the removal of tobacco retail displays from sight is an essential and urgent requirement for New Zealand.” I think it will be very happy with the move that this House is making today. I congratulate those Pacific health groups who work hard day in day out to encourage Pasifika people to quit smoking and also not to begin smoking. I also take this opportunity to acknowledge the leadership of the Minister in charge of this bill the Hon Tariana Turia. This is a significant step for a New Zealand Minister so I thank her for making sure that this has become a priority on behalf of Pacific people. 
As I mentioned earlier we have first of all banned tobacco sponsorship; not so long ago we banned smoking in bars and workplaces; and soon we will have a complete ban on tobacco displays in our shops. As a number of members on this side of the House have mentioned we want to know where we are going and what the next steps are. We have also alluded to what we think those steps are. We think there will be relatively widespread support for having plain packaging. We know that across the Ditch that jurisdiction has moved towards plain packaging. I for one completely and utterly support that. Also there are changes in relation to the use of vending machines which we believe are used in a way that targets casual smokers. 
I also take this opportunity to thank those many people who submitted both for and against on this bill. I found some of the stories to be inspirational. There were a number of personal stories from submitters to the Health Committee about their support for this bill such as from people who have lost loved ones. I also found some submissions—not surprisingly—from retailers and the tobacco industry and from those bodies aligned to the tobacco industry to be infuriating. There was one particular submitter who was a retailer I think from Dunedin. I think Kevin Hague has already mentioned him. He thought he sold about $150000 worth of tobacco each week which is a significant amount. I am not sure about the accuracy of that claim. This man had been in his community for some time as a tobacconist and claimed that he came to know some of his customers very well; they became close friends. Upon questioning whether he knew his customers well enough to know whether they wanted to quit he told us he knew that about 70 percent of them definitely did. Despite him knowing that he continued to sell tobacco to them for years. I think in that respect that retailer needs to take a little bit more responsibility for how he targets his customers. 
We are in a political setting; this is an election year so we all know the power of marketing. The tobacco companies know that and that is why they have pumped in a significant amount of money to try to make sure that this bill did not happen especially because they know that they can use those marketing ploys to ensure that they continue to have a significant market into the future. It has been amazing as I am a non-smoker to see and to listen to some of the loopholes that the tobacco companies will try to get through. They use any sliver of light they can find to make sure that they can continue to market their products to young New Zealanders. 
I will take this opportunity—because I know I am running short of time—to thank the officials some of whom are in the public gallery today for the significant amount of assistance they gave the Health Committee. I came into the Health Committee part-way through the process and getting my head around some of the issues in this bill was certainly helped by some of the officials who helped us out during our consideration of the bill. 
I will finish with the words from one submitter Boyd Broughton who said: “The current legislation laws and restrictions governing tobacco retail displays are like the efforts of the Moa to hide from hunters in days when Moa were plentiful. Due to their size elaborate colouring and sheer numbers they are easily seen. Let us hope tobacco retail displays future mirrors not only their ability to be seen but also their fate.” It is an absolute pleasure to support this bill.