Lees-Galloway Iain: Smoke-free Environments (Controls and Enforcement) Amendment Bill — Second Reading 
Lees-Galloway Iain: Smoke-free Environments (Controls and Enforcement) Amendment Bill — Second Reading 
[Volume:673;Page:19667] 
IAIN LEES-GALLOWAY (Labour—Palmerston North) 
: 
 It gives me a lot of pleasure to rise and offer Labour’s enthusiastic and wholehearted support for the Smoke-free Environments (Controls and Enforcement) Amendment Bill. This bill is an important step on the path towards achieving a smoke-free nation by 2025 a path that this nation has been on for a number of years. I think it is an important step because we have seen in this term of Parliament the second significant piece of legislation aimed at curtailing the use of tobacco and the prevalence of smoking in New Zealand. In this term of Parliament we have seen what is near to a consensus across parties on these measures. That is a huge leap forward I have to say from some of the debates—fights is probably the appropriate word—that we have had in New Zealand in the past when it has come to tobacco control and legislation dealing with it. I hope that the silliness and some of the pettiness that we have seen in the past is now behind us. We have certainly seen strong moves towards a consensus on this issue in this Parliament.  
I hope that this bill continues to have the support that it received at its first reading and the support that we saw at the Health Committee. I acknowledge my colleagues on the select committee. I see the chair Dr Paul Hutchison in the Chamber this evening. There was a very constructive conversation. Everybody was on the same page. It was great to see all the parties working together not only to transition this bill through the House but also to find whatever possible opportunity we could to strengthen the bill in order to make this the biggest step forward that we possibly could.  
I also acknowledge the very large number of submitters who came and spoke in support of this bill particularly those people who work in the area of tobacco control. Those people work at the front line of health promotion in this country. They work with communities trying to prevent our young people from taking up smoking and trying to encourage those who have the smoking addiction to give it up so that they can extend their lives extend the quality of their lives and extend the quality of their relationship with their families their whanau and their communities. I think there are amazing people out there doing that work trying to improve the health and well-being of all New Zealanders and I acknowledge them.  
It is fair to say we did not have 100 percent support of the bill by all submitters. We heard from people who were I think it is fair to say representing the tobacco industry. We heard some retailers who were concerned about the compliance issue and the change that this legislation would mean for their business. We also heard the same tired old arguments from the tobacco industry that this issue is about adult choice and that people should be able to choose whichever brand of cigarettes they would like to smoke. People will still have choice; we are not banning tobacco smoking. We are not stopping people from purchasing tobacco products from the places where they are quite used to purchasing them right now. People will still have that choice.  
By removing tobacco displays in what I think is the most significant part of this legislation we are simply removing temptation for people who are trying to quit and removing the presence—the omnipresence—of tobacco in retail outlets that young people are exposed to. It is true that the only thing that people have to look at if they go into a dairy or most supermarkets is the tobacco display. It is right behind the counter where they have to go to pay for whatever other goods they want to purchase. It is right there in people’s faces. I am sure that everybody else in this Chamber will join me in saying I look forward to the day when I can walk into my local dairy and find that tobacco display is no longer there. I know that a number of retailers have already taken up this initiative and they report that they have seen no loss in sales and no loss of customers; in fact it has gone down very well with their communities.  
We considered a number of issues at the select committee. One of those was the commencement and transition dates. A number of submitters wanted to see the commencement date brought forward and the transition dates shortened as much as possible. I can understand their enthusiasm; they want to see these measures come into place as quickly as possible. But we had to take into account the change that is required for retailers. A number of retailers and organisations came and said to us that they wanted there to be some consistency and they wanted to know exactly what they were dealing with. Although the select committee extended the initial period which allows more time for retailers to make the change I think overall we will see a total removal of tobacco displays in a shorter period of time as a result of the amendments made at the select committee. The total lead-in time is slightly reduced and I think that is a good thing. We will have certainty. The retailers have certainty and the public have certainty about when the removal of tobacco displays will actually take place. I think that is a particularly good change that was made at the select committee.  
I do not want us to get distracted by this issue but one issue was I suppose particularly vexing for the select committee. It was the issue of herbal smoking products and whether we should extend the same conditions that we are placing on tobacco to other herbal smoking products. I know that this has become a particularly relevant issue over the last couple of weeks when we have seen a lot of media coverage about products such as Kronic Dream and Spice. These are synthetic cannabis products that fall under the Smoke-free Environments Act as herbal smoking products. The suggestion that we should extend the measures in this bill to those products was brought to the select committee very much at the last minute I would say by the Ministry of Health. Although I think every single member of the committee thought that was a splendid idea and something we should progress with as quickly as possible we felt it would be better to make sure that the manufacturers importers and retailers of those products— 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson) 
: I am sorry to interrupt the honourable member. The time has come for me to leave the Chair. 
Debate interrupted.