Tirikatene RinoRINO TIRIKATENE (Labour—Te Tai Tonga): I am pleased to make a brief contribution in the Committee stage of this bill. I join with my other colleagues in supporting this legislation which will bring in the introduction of plain packaging for tobacco products. There is nothing left for me to say in terms of just endorsing the intent and the purpose of this legislation and why we want to enact it and I do acknowledge the Associate Minister of Health Peseta Sam Lotu-Iiga for his work. What I would like to do is focus on what I think is an omission from this legislation. That involves the effect of internet sales and the plain packaging that may apply—well how this law will apply to private purchases that are made online by folks from vendors over the globe which is presently allowed and how that will align with this plain packaging legislation. At the moment we have an increasing amount of trade that is conducted online and I know there are regulation-making powers within the legislation to prescribe the nature of internet sales but as I am aware it is still open to any citizen of this country to jump online and find a relevant vendor around the world to purchase cigarettes or tobacco products cigars—whatever is on offer. Those products may comply with say US laws around a Surgeon General warning but they do not go to the extent of the regulations that are prescribed by our own laws. So I just want to clarify—we do have the Minister of Customs in the Chamber at the moment—whether the private purchase of internet sales of branded products tobacco products will be prohibited. Will they become a prohibited import? Will they be stopped at the border because they are not compliant with the New Zealand plain packaging legislation? I think that as online consumers increase and become more savvy and the world is opened up online we may have the corner shop selling a plain-packaged cigarette but it is certainly open for any citizen to purchase their treasured retro-looking branded product that you cannot ordinarily get here in New Zealand freely and happily on the internet provided the Customs Service is able to intercept that product at the border and charge the relevant duty and excise and GST to the purchaser of that product. Will there be an additional prohibition on that product by virtue of the fact that it is not in plain packaging? I think that is a straightforward question. At the moment as I said it is open to any citizen of this country to jump online find a vendor and purchase a box of cigarettes that is beautifully—well not beautifully"—brightly coloured branded psychedelic coloured in all the colours of the rainbow and containing all the different flavours they want. It is open to them. They can purchase them all. They can pick off the shelf any particular product they want. They need not go to the corner store and buy a bland plain-packaged product. So what is the purpose of this legislation if it does not defeat the increasing number of Kiwis who are shopping online? I believe that the legislation does seem to fall short on that very point. How do I know this? Well I do it myself. I am not actually a smoker but I have tested the customs system as the Opposition spokesperson on customs and it is perfectly open to any person to go online like I do and buy whatever selected little cigar product tobacco anything you want and in some instances it is not even caught by the Customs Service. But in the very rare occurrence that the beagles at the border do I think it is a very fair point."