Smith Lockwood: Smoke-free Environments Amendment Bill — Procedure Referral to Health Committee In Committee Speaker Recalled In Committee Speaker Recalled  Speaker Recalled In Committee Procedure 
Smith Lockwood: Smoke-free Environments Amendment Bill — Procedure Referral to Health Committee In Committee Speaker Recalled In Committee Speaker Recalled  Speaker Recalled In Committee Procedure 
[Volume:613;Page:9994] 
Dr the Hon LOCKWOOD SMITH (National—Rodney) 
: 
 In speaking to Part 3 of this Smoke-free Environments Amendment Bill I want to focus particularly on clause 8A. We have already heard from my colleague Maurice Williamson about some of the stupidity in this bill. I have not been involved in this bill right the way through the process but as I look at what is contained in it I find I do not recollect in my 20 years in this place such stupidity going into legislation right down to the size of signs and the number of packages that are allowed to be on shelves. But given that stupidity I ask the member responsible for this bill Steve Chadwick and the Minister a few things in this Committee about what is going on here. 
I am interested that the Government did something very relevant to this legislation back on 16 June 2003 when it signed the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. Not many New Zealanders know about that but on 16 June the Government signed that convention. If we look at clause 8A and new section 23A(2) we see it provides: “The sign must have at least the lesser of the following areas: (a) 1 square metre: (b) 10% of the area of the display in which the tobacco products are exposed for sale.” The Government has just signed the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control so the first question I have for the member responsible for this bill is this: is that measure in this bill consistent with that convention? That is my first question to the member responsible for this bill—and let us face it this bill is just a facade for a Government measure; we all know Helen Clark is behind it. Is that measure in this bill consistent with the convention that the Government signed on 16 June? I suspect it is not because if one looks at something that the Minister who is sitting opposite us in the Chamber said on 7 October then one sees that in fact the convention requires health warning messages to cover no less than 30 percent of the principal display. Why on earth is the Government bringing in legislation that is totally inconsistent with the damned Framework Convention on Tobacco Control? That is my first question. 
But I have a more important question: how much taxpayers’ money has this Government secretly spent on the whole issue of tobacco control which this bill now brings to the surface in New Zealand? I have some questions for Government members in this Parliament and they can answer them. How many meetings in Geneva have Government officials involved in issues relating to Part 3 of this bill been involved in? Would it have been just one two or three meetings in Geneva that were involved in sorting out these dopey rules on tobacco control? I charge that Minister over there to tell the Committee this: was it 31 meetings in Geneva that taxpayers’ money has been spent on—31 meetings in Geneva—to sort out the nonsense of all the detailed control on signs and the size of the warnings concerning tobacco? 
But the situation gets worse. That is just the meetings in Geneva. It is not just the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade which I happen to know a little bit about that has been involved in that nonsense. The Ministry of Health has been involved in it too. Do members know how many times that ministry’s officials have been right across the world to Geneva to play around with the nonsense in Part 3? The member in the chair Steve Chadwick who is responsible for this bill is smiling. The taxpayers may care a little more about this than she does because Ministry of Health officials have flown across the world 11 times since this Government has been in office just to play around with the nonsense in Part 3 of the bill as part of signing the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control—11 times to Geneva but only once to New Delhi. 
I have all the background stuff on that here in the Chamber. The Government has been secretive about that; no one knows about it. The officials have been to sunny Noumea though. As they worked on this stuff they have been to sunny Noumea but only once to New Delhi and they have been to Geneva 11 times for 31 meetings. The time involved is a whole month of our officials’ time—and I can see the Minister looking very embarrassed about that because it is a scandal. I have more to expose about that.