Flavell Te Ururoa: Smoke-free Environments (Controls and Enforcement) Amendment Bill — Second Reading 
Flavell Te Ururoa: Smoke-free Environments (Controls and Enforcement) Amendment Bill — Second Reading 
[Volume:673;Page:19717] 
TE URUROA FLAVELL (Maori Party—Waiariki) 
: 
 Kia ora Mr Speaker. Ka nui te mihi ki a koe i tenei ahiahi. Today is not a bad day—today is not a bad day.  
I thought I would start by just asking a few questions—not of you Mr Assistant Speaker Roy; I do not want to bring you into the debate. I will just check in with the Hon Hekia Parata to see whether she has been following the debate. I am sure she has because today is a good day for the Maori Party I think. Let me just check. If I was to ask which party contributed to a Maori presence in the debate on the Telecommunications (TSO Broadband and Other Matters) Amendment Bill I ask what the Hon Hekia Parata would say. 
Hon Hekia Parata 
: The Maori Party. 
TE URUROA FLAVELL 
: OK. Right we have one answer from the Minister; that gets her to Fiji. The second question is which party promoted the second reading of the Smoke-free Environments (Controls and Enforcement) Amendment Bill. 
Hon Members 
: The Maori Party. 
TE URUROA FLAVELL 
: Oh no stop it. Do not do that. Stop it. Let me ask the Minister another question which will take her from Fiji to Hawaii. Who is the sponsor of this particular bill right now? 
Hon Hekia Parata 
: Is it Te Urur— 
TE URUROA FLAVELL 
: No. The Minister should hurry up; I have only 10 minutes. It is Tariana— 
Hon Hekia Parata 
: Turia. 
TE URUROA FLAVELL 
: Tariana Turia; that is right. The Minister is very good. She must be Ngati Porou; I can tell. The fourth question is who is the co-leader of the most high-profile dynamic effective small but stunningly good-looking— 
Hon Hekia Parata 
: Agile. 
TE URUROA FLAVELL 
: —and agile political party? Who is the co-leader of that party? 
Hon Hekia Parata 
: Dr Pita Sharples. 
TE URUROA FLAVELL 
: He is one of them. Who is the other one? 
Hon Hekia Parata 
: Te Ururoa Flavell. 
TE URUROA FLAVELL 
: No he is not. 
Hon Members 
: Tariana Turia. 
TE URUROA FLAVELL 
: That is very good. I thank the Minister very much. I have one more question for the Minister just to check that she is not reading the answers. Which party does the Hon Tariana Turia belong to? She sponsored this particular bill and is a part of that other legislation passed today for which the Maori Party has provided an energetic— 
Hon Hekia Parata 
: The Maori Party. 
TE URUROA FLAVELL 
: It is the Maori Party. The Minister is the winner. That is why she is a Minister: because she and some of my other colleagues over there know the importance of having the Maori Party beside them. I can see that you are grinning Mr Assistant Speaker Roy. You are smiling because you know that is the answer. I thank the Minister. 
I am really pleased to follow up from and commend the Hon Tariana Turia co-leader of the Maori Party for the amazing amazing—I will say it again—amazing efforts she has made in terms of tobacco control and in paving the foundation for the health and well-being of all tamariki in this nation. Is the Minister nodding? Yes she was. I am sure she was nodding to agree that this bill is important for all tamariki of this nation. 
On a little bit of a serious note I say that the party’s tobacco campaign to rid our shores of tobacco has resulted in a number of landmark milestones a number of which are included in the Smoke-free Environments Act. It is a bit of a history tour. There are things in the Act such as increasing the tobacco tax and now we have the introduction of legislation to ban displays and to keep tobacco out of sight and out of mind. The past 12 months have been the most rapid in the history of making policy on tobacco control that this country has seen. Just over a year ago in response to Maori Party advocacy the Maori Affairs Committee announced that it would carry out an inquiry into the tobacco industry—in particular into the consequences for Maori of tobacco use. In March the Hon Tariana Turia initiated a public consultation on the proposal to ban tobacco displays in retail outlets specifically announcing that the Government would ban retail displays of tobacco. This policy has long been sought by health campaigners in order to denormalise tobacco to help smokers quit and to reduce the number of young people taking up smoking. 
Already these early steps are proving to bring about success. The 2009 Tobacco Use Survey showed that the current smoking rate for 15 to 65-year-olds has dropped to 21.8 percent. In real numbers that is about 60000 fewer smokers. Of those 60000 in real numbers again about 10000 are estimated to be Maori. Those are pretty good statistics. As I say these are fantastic results which demonstrate that people are starting to recognise the serious harm that comes from smoking and they are basically saying that it is not worth it. Therefore the Maori Party is absolutely overwhelmed and privileged by and stunningly supportive of this bill. 
The amendment bill aims to remove tobacco displays from outlets and to include harsher penalties for the sale and purchase of tobacco products to children and young people. The bill makes it much more difficult for companies to enter into covert sponsorship arrangements. This bill makes significant progress in achieving the Maori Party goal of making Aotearoa a smoke-free nation by 2025. 
The Maori Party is pleased and proud to support this bill right through to the end—which will be soon I am sure—as part of our goal to rid smoking and cigarettes from our nation and to therefore have a healthier nation across the board. Today is a good day when the Maori Party says: “Yeah—we’ve done it!”. Kia ora tatou.