Chadwick Steve: Smoke-free Environments (Enhanced Protection) Amendment Bill — Second Reading 
Chadwick Steve: Smoke-free Environments (Enhanced Protection) Amendment Bill — Second Reading 
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STEVE CHADWICK (NZ Labour—Rotorua) 
: 
 I move  
That the Smoke-free Environments (Enhanced Protection) Amendment Bill be now read a second time 
. I am pleased to speak today during the second reading debate on this bill. I would like to begin my remarks by saying how proud I am as a New Zealander of the leadership we provided for the world on the issue of tobacco control. New Zealand was a world leader when the Smoke-free Environments Act was passed in 1990 and that legislation achieved the following. It created the beginnings of smoke-free indoor workplaces which we now take for granted. It replaced tobacco sponsorship with smoke-free sponsorship of sports and other community events; it regulated the sale labelling and advertising of tobacco products; and it prohibited the sale of tobacco products to minors. 
Over the past 13 years we built on the policy framework of the Smoke-free Environments Act for a comprehensive tobacco control strategy. We have increased the excise tax on tobacco to discourage young people from taking up smoking and we have encouraged smokers to quit and stay quit. We dropped consumption by 40 percent between 1990 and 2002. We have introduced smoking cessation services such as the toll-free Quitline and a world-first combination of phone counselling with subsidised nicotine replacement therapy. We focused on high-risk smokers such as Maori and pregnant women in the provision of quitting services and we have increased our investment by over $26 million a year. 
But it is not enough. We have some catching up to do to keep up with overwhelming public opinion that is calling for comprehensive protections from second-hand smoke and we also have some catching up to do with other countries like our own that have continued to ride the international wave of putting in place more responsible tobacco control measures. That international wave has culminated in the international Framework Convention on Tobacco Control which has just been finalised in Geneva. 
This Parliament has the opportunity to kick-start and regain that leadership role for New Zealand by voting for the legislation we are reading today. The bill has a long history. It was introduced in 1999 by Tukoroirangi Morgan and I acknowledge the work of the previous Health Committee chaired by Judy Keall during the last term. Judy and that committee heard 84 of the 112 oral submissions. The Health Committee has been considering the bill since 2001 and it has received nearly 400 submissions and over 7500 form submissions. In the process we have travelled widely to Auckland Hamilton Christchurch and Dunedin and listened to the views of a very broad cross-section of New Zealanders about what kind of smoke-free legislation they want. 
The bill has grown and developed from the original proposal and Supplementary Order Paper proposed by the health Minister in 2001. It represents a broad and incremental development on the Smoke-free Environments Act. The primary purposes are to extend the protection for workers volunteers and the public in the Smoke-free Environments Act of 1990 to reduce the harm caused to individuals by their smoking particularly against exposure to second-hand smoke. It further restricts minors’ access to smoking products and to the visual influences of smoking in front of minors and it promotes a smoke-free lifestyle as the norm for all New Zealanders. 
The bill also addresses influences on young people and the rights of smokers as consumers. It provides for smoke-free schools and early-childhood centres and other places of learning for young people both indoor and outdoor at all times. It further restricts minors’ access to smoking products through restrictions on vending machines and the public supply of cigarettes by friends and families. It bans co-packaging and other marketing inducements to encourage smoking by young people and it further restricts the display of smoking products that reinforce smoking as the norm. It provides smokers with stronger and clearer information in health messages about the impact of this addiction on their health and the health of their loved ones. Thatincludes pictorial warnings and leaflets that provide greater detail about the harmful ingredients in tobacco products. 
The Health Committee spent 40 hours scrutinising this bill and we believe that a number of principles underpin legislation on tobacco control—such as addiction and the impacts on health and family keeping tobacco legal so as not to further victimise smokers public support for 100 percent smoke-free places discouragement of the commencement of smoking and also smokers’ rights. 
I would like to emphasise again just how serious the threat from tobacco is. This is not simply a consumer item of pleasure; it is the single greatest preventable cause of death disability and health inequality in this country. It has a devastating impact on our communities; an impact that makes other health and life-threatening issues—such as road crashes—pale into insignificance; and the statistics are chilling. About a quarter of adults still smoke and comparable numbers of teenagers are taking up the habit ensuring another generation of unnecessary addiction and harm. Those figures double for Maori and that leads to tobacco causing one-fifth of all deaths for Maori. 
Every year in this country about 4500 smokers die from tobacco-related diseases. That is over 10 times the number of people who are killed on our roads. Many more suffer the harmful effects of tobacco—everything from heart and lung diseases to low fertility and blindness. The dangers of second-hand smoke are unequivocal particularly for vulnerable people like children asthma sufferers and hospitality workers who are exposed to lungfuls of it in smoky pubs and the like. 
Second-hand smoke is not just an irritant that gets into our clothes hair and throats; it kills 380 or so non-smokers every year. That is about the same number of people who die on our roads. The resulting harm to people’s health productivity and relationships costs us an estimated $22 billion each year. This is not something that as a country and as legislators we can ignore. We have a responsibility to do something about this. 
The select committee recommends making all indoor workplaces completely smoke-free with some limited exceptions around areas that are in the private sphere such as hotel rooms. The bill as reported back includes all hospitality venues—pubs bars restaurants cafes casinos and gaming-machine venues and clubs that serve alcohol. This is a proposal that many people are interested in. We found there was support for a level-playing-field approach across the hospitality sector that protects all workers regardless of who their employer is; treats all businesses the same without fear or favour; and replicates experiences that have proven a level-playing-field approach results in more people going out and socialising creating a positive economic impact overall for hospitality businesses and the community. 
I stress that the bill is not an anti-smoking measure. The select committee heard smokers tell us they recognise all too well the risks of smoking for themselves and people around them. We applaud those who attempt to give up their addiction and we will give them the help needed. We hope that providing smoke-free bars and other public places will help to minimise the temptations and triggers to smoke and encourage more smokers to consider quitting. In addition we hope the bill’s provision for future regulations to require warnings and clearer information about the contents and harmful effects of tobacco products will empower smokers to make an informed decision about smoking. 
Let us remember that three-quarters of us do not smoke and over 90 percent of us including 85 percent who do smoke agree that all workers have a right to breathe fresh air. I encourage us to put New Zealand on the map and lead the way with the passage of this bill as part of a wider and comprehensive tobacco-control strategy. The work is not done but this bill will take us a long way towards achieving the principles of the international Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. I challenge us to show the same leadership as those decision makers in places such as Ireland and New York. For if Ireland can rewrite its traditional pub culture to be smoke-free from 2004 and New York can similarly give a thumbs up for the health of all its workers and citizens then why not us too? I invite the House to consider the bill which if passed as proposed is important legislation to promote and protect the health of all New Zealanders.