Faafoi Kris: Smoke-free Environments (Controls and Enforcement) Amendment Bill — Instruction to Committee In Committee 
Faafoi Kris: Smoke-free Environments (Controls and Enforcement) Amendment Bill — Instruction to Committee In Committee 
[Volume:674;Page:20073] 
KRIS FAAFOI (Labour—Mana) 
: 
 Thank you very much for the opportunity to speak at the Committee stage of the Smoke-free Environments (Controls and Enforcement) Amendment Bill. I commend the Minister in charge of this bill the Associate Minister of Health Tariana Turia for putting pressure on the Government to push this through. I know that on this side of the House there was some sense of anguish when we left office in 2008 that these measures were up and ready to go and that for 2 years there seemed to be a lack of action on that. But it seems that with the help of the Minister in the chair the Hon Tariana Turia some action has been taken. 
I will concentrate on clauses 4A and 4B in Part 1 which are basically the main parts of this bill. They ban the advertisement or display of tobacco advertising on the interior and exterior of shops. This is all about imagery. It was the last bastion of advertising imagery that the tobacco companies were desperately trying to hold on to. I know from speaking to one manufacturer in my electorate Whittaker’s of the importance of the “golden wall” in supermarkets. To put this in a tobacco context we see that this is exactly what the tobacco companies are trying to protect. I stand here with great pleasure to say that they have absolutely failed. As this bill went through the Health Committee it was one of the first issues for me as a member of that committee that I addressed. The tobacco companies put up a big fight and a lot of resources—not necessarily through themselves but through other means through retailers and other organisations—to vehemently oppose what we are trying to do today. 
We are still getting letters from the tobacco companies saying that we should reject the submissions or the thrust of the work of the Health Committee. I say to one tobacco manufacturer that it should actually check who the members of the Health Committee are before it sends letters to them completely bagging a decision that they have made unanimously but I look forward to meeting with manufacturers. As I said this is about imagery and making sure that we can stamp it out. I attended a Pacific health youth expo today and I got a pen from the Pacific Smoking Cessation Programme which is based in Cannons Creek. That programme is obviously doing great work to decrease the number of young people who are smoking at the moment. This bill in some huge way will make an impact by making sure that these walls of tobacco are no longer in our shops and in our service stations. 
With 700000 Kiwis smoking at the moment and 5000 Kiwis dying each year of tobacco-related illnesses this is one of the most positive things that this House could do to make sure we clamp down on that. As I mentioned earlier there was some vehement opposition to this bill from the smoking industry and from some other agencies that I fear are funded by the tobacco industry. 
As I look at clause 4A I see that the Health Committee made an amendment to the transitional exemption from compliance periods from 2 years down to 12 months. I would like to congratulate all those anti-smoking organisations that made submissions to the select committee. They were vehemently opposed to the tobacco industry and the retailers having a 2-year period to make sure they could comply with the nuts and bolts of this part of the bill. We also made a concession I think in respect of the commencement date of this legislation. Although the provisions are to come into force a bit later the law itself is to be all-inclusive sooner so we moved from the 2-year period into the 12-month transition. 
It is an absolute pleasure to be speaking here today to a bill that prohibits the display of tobacco in our shops and in our service stations. As I said it was an interesting experience to listen to some of the tobacco industry’s submissions on this bill. It is clear that with the huge wave of money and resources the industry has it could put up a huge fight. But I think that in the end common sense won out and the efforts and the passion of organisations such as Action on Smoking and Health won out on the day. I think that was a positive thing.