Moroney Sue: Smoke-free Environments (Controls and Enforcement) Amendment Bill — Instruction to Committee In Committee 
Moroney Sue: Smoke-free Environments (Controls and Enforcement) Amendment Bill — Instruction to Committee In Committee 
[Volume:674;Page:20074] 
SUE MORONEY (Labour) 
: 
 It is a pleasure to stand and speak on Part 1 in the Committee stage of the Smoke-free Environments (Controls and Enforcement) Amendment Bill. At the outset I congratulate the Minister in the chair the Associate Minister of Health Tariana Turia on her success in continuing this very important legacy of having cultural change I guess in New Zealand. We have been very successful over a number of years in having cultural change around the issue of smoking. I think actually in respect of many things that we debate in the House that this bill is a ray of hope in terms of the sorts of legislative and educative processes that if we combine them successfully can make cultural changes and change attitudes. I think this is an area that demonstrates that very well and I hope this gives us all the courage to take bold leadership in the sorts of ventures we undertake as parliamentarians going forward on behalf of New Zealanders particularly in the interests of their health. That is what is fundamentally at the bottom of what we are doing with this amendment bill. 
Before I go on to specifically talk about Part 1 I recognise Steve Chadwick who is in the debating chamber and who did many of the hard yards in this area. I know that Steve Chadwick suffered personal attacks and abuse because of the position that she took some years ago in terms of being a leader in this area and front-footing this issue when it was not popular to do so. I say to Steve that she should wear that as a badge of honour. It is something that she will always have and I congratulate her on that. 
I am not on the Health Committee but I happened to be substituted on to it for another member on the day that one of these clauses was being debated. It was a very interesting debate because it was around the part of the bill relating to herbal products. There was quite a dilemma about whether herbal products were a good thing and ought to be on display because they were a gateway out of smoking nicotine or whether they had harmful side effects as well. It was quite a difficult discussion for the select committee to have because it appeared that there had been no submissions on this issue to guide the select committee. The select committee had to ask questions of the officials who gave very good advice about what evidence did or did not exist on this issue. 
It is interesting to note that since the select committee made I think the right decision to include herbal products in the banning of displays through this bill the debate we have been having in this country about Kronic has been put into even sharper contrast. I believe that Kronic would probably fit the definition of being a herbal product under this part of the bill. What foresight the select committee had! It was guided by the officials to make the right decision and say that we have no evidence that herbal products are beneficial in terms of the whole health harm that is caused by smoking and in the absence of that evidence we will ban herbal products from being displayed in shops and in retail outlets. 
Of course the select committee also had to deal with the very tricky issue of what to do about internet sales. 
Sitting suspended from 6 p.m. to 7.30 p.m. 
SUE MORONEY 
: Having had the benefit of a dinner break I say just how important dinner breaks are. They are important for many many reasons and also for reflection upon a speech one might have been making just prior to 6 o’clock when the Committee broke for dinner—in this instance on Part 1 of this Smoke-free Environments (Controls and Enforcement) Amendment Bill. I got a little bit overenthusiastic in my praise for the Health Committee members about how wise they had been with regard to herbal products. I said that they had actually banned the display of those products. I reflected upon that over the dinner break and have discovered that they did all sorts of good things about regulating herbal products but unfortunately they did not go as far as banning the display of herbal products. I think that now we have learnt and had a debate about Kronic and know that it exactly fits that criteria perhaps in this Committee stage we should be considering the extra step of banning the display of herbal products as well. Kronic falls fairly and squarely into that category. I think it is clear to us now that that particular product be it herbal or not is at least as harmful as cigarettes and tobacco products and that it ought to be included as well. 
None the less the select committee had another tricky issue to deal with in this part of the bill which was the way in which to regulate the internet. That issue has vexed this Parliament on more than one occasion. It has recently been particularly vexing for this Parliament. How do we regulate and seek to have some standards for and control over something that has a life of its own like the internet? The select committee was called on to consider that issue again with regard to the promotion of tobacco products and herbal products. Of course it is almost impossible to ban the display of those products on the internet but the select committee has quite wisely tried to regulate what is in fact allowable in terms of the internet. That applies particularly to some of the health benefits that can be used on the internet to promote particular products. The select committee and this bill has sought to address that issue which is a very tricky one indeed. 
I think it is often said when we talk about this issue of smoke-free environments that it is like a woman scorned is it not? People who used to smoke can sometimes be the most vociferous in terms of defending and promoting strong regulation for tobacco products. I put myself in that camp. I am a former smoker. I feel as if I am making a big confession. I will not say: “I gave it up.” because that would imply that I gave up something valuable. It is not at all valuable. So I say instead: “I stopped.” I stopped smoking took myself away from being controlled by the tobacco industry gave myself a life and ensured that I was a good role model for my children. 
But the struggle with withdrawal from nicotine—and I am sure I am not the only member in this Chamber to have had it—is actually exceptionally difficult to go through. When one is going through that process to have to be in an environment where displays of tobacco and advertising of tobacco are constantly featured is a very difficult thing to do. Clause 7 in Part 1 takes a very important step to take away those displays to actually ban and prohibit the display of tobacco products in the environments we visit all the time. We visit them when we buy petrol when we buy milk and when we go into any retail environment. 
The display of tobacco products has been used by the tobacco industry in lieu of advertising for those products. It came through really loudly and clearly in the submissions we heard on this bill that it is not just a display of goods so that people can see where they can buy the goods from. Display is quite deliberately used as a technique and tactic to replace tobacco advertising which of course a former Labour Government took leadership on and banned some years ago. I think it is really important for us to continue to see that sort of leadership. You know when the Labour Government did that it was very bold. It was a very very bold thing that the Labour Government did. It took leadership. 
I think we are about to see that leadership again this week but I will not talk about that in regard to Part 1 of the Smoke-free Environments (Controls and Enforcement) Amendment Bill. But it does cause me to reflect on how important the bold leadership from Labour has been in terms of changing the environments and culture we have in relation to the issue of smoking in this country. 
Just prior to the dinner break I was reminding members about our colleague Steve Chadwick; I will repeat that in case members missed the contribution before dinner. I think that as an individual she took absolute leadership for the betterment of the health of all New Zealanders. I really congratulate her on that because she was brave she was bold and she took a lot of personal flak over leading the charge on making smoke-free environments in New Zealand.