Brownlee Gerry: Smoke-free Environments Amendment Bill — Referral to Health Committee Procedure In Committee 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Brownlee Gerry: Smoke-free Environments Amendment Bill — Referral to Health Committee Procedure In Committee 
[Sitting date: 15 October 2003. Volume:612;Page:9226. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
GERRY BROWNLEE (National—Ilam) 
: 
 This is a disgraceful bill that has been totally discredited by the allegations of corruption that surround it. 
Dianne Yates 
: Rubbish! 
GERRY BROWNLEE 
: We have just heard from the retiring member for Hamilton East—and we wish her well in her retirement. People in this country need to understand that this is a member’s bill. The Government apparently does not want anything to do with it. However just like the prostitution legislation the Government managed to go along to the people’s pot—the big pile of excess tax that it has taken out of the pockets of workers—and scrape up a big fist full of dollars which it has thrown at Action on Smoking and Health and various other institutions that have gone around the countryside trying to lobby MPs into taking a particular position. 
I say to any MPs in this Committee who have listened to that lobbying and now know that they were the victims of direct Government propaganda from the Minister of Health and from this particular member that they are participating in a very corrupt practice and should remove themselves from the voting register at the end of this bill. However we know that they will not because underneath all of this is the big stick of Helen Clark saying to her caucus: “Do as I say or get out.” This bill is just not a reasonable bill. Now I do not particularly like cigarette smoke. I do not choose to go into a smoky bar and stay there if I do not like it. I do not choose to walk around with a packet of cigarettes rolled up in the cuff my T-shirt and do not particularly enjoy other people puffing their cigarette smoke into my face. But I do not need a bill like this that absolutely prevents people from participating in that activity in order to protect my best interests. I do not need that. 
I want to talk about the purpose of the bill which is relitigated under Part 2 “Amendments to Part II of the principal Act”. In new Part 1 we have this extraordinary statement: “The purposes of this part are—(a) to prevent the detrimental effect of other people’s smoking on the health of people in workplaces or in certain public enclosed areas who do not smoke or do not wish to smoke there;” Well I will tell members something. When I arrive at Parliament on a Tuesday morning from Christchurch I do not want to get out of the cab and be assaulted by the cigarette smoke of all those who gather underneath the steps of Parliament outside the rubber door smoke their cigarettes blow their smoke all over me and everybody else and throw their filthy butts on the ground. But that will be the effect of this bill in almost every workplace around this country. We will be in an extraordinarily grubby country as a result of this stupid legislation. 
Hon Maurice Williamson 
: It is only their cigarette butts. 
GERRY BROWNLEE 
: Yes it is only their cigarette butts that they are throwing around so Mr Williamson should calm down and show no excitement. I read on: (c) to prevent the detrimental effect of other people’s smoking on the health of young people who are being taught or cared for in registered schools or early childhood centres.” There is nothing with that. No one wants to see a teacher in a classroom puffing away on a cigarette. No one wants to see the childcare person at the day-care centre sucking on a cigarette with the baby bouncing on the knee. But what about when those people have their break? What about when they go out and they want to have a cigarette? We cannot on the one hand say that smoking is a terrible addiction but on the other hand ignore the effects of that addiction. I do not want my children in the day-care centre suffering because a teacher at the day-care centre is so strung out for want of a cigarette in the car park or outside somewhere during a break in his or her day. If this legislation is going to put those people into really stressful situations how will that advance the welfare of the children in their care? 
Steve Chadwick 
: Ha ha! 
GERRY BROWNLEE 
: The member advancing this bill laughs. What fascinates me is that the member is actually laughing at the huge business community in New Zealand known as the hospitality industry.