Turia Tariana: Smoke-free Environments (Enhanced Protection) Amendment Bill — Second Reading 
Turia Tariana: Smoke-free Environments (Enhanced Protection) Amendment Bill — Second Reading 
[Volume:609;Page:6621] 
Hon TARIANA TURIA (Associate Minister of Health) 
: 
 First of all tonight I want to mihi to Tukoroirangi Morgan who introduced the original private member’s bill during his term in Government. I do that because I know that Tuku Morgan wanted to change the lives of our people for the better. I mihi to him for his foresight and commitment. I also take the opportunity to mihi to Judy Keall and to the Health Committee members who worked so hard on this bill. I congratulate Lynda Scott from the National Party for her support and I thank all the people who work with our whanau hapu and iwi to assist them in quitting this very addictive substance tobacco that kills so many of our people. 
I support this bill as a chronic asthmatic as a Maori electorate MP and as an Associate Minister of Health with responsibilities for the health of the tangata whenua. In my family I have lost my mother and many of my cousins to smoking-related illnesses so I have an absolute abhorrence of this addictive substance. The recent case of white powder found in a pouch of cigarette tobacco raised fears of cyanide poisoning by terrorists and the threat was taken seriously. Buildings were evacuated and the staff was decontaminated. The powder was found to be harmless but cyanide is the main toxin in side-stream smoke from the burning end of cigarettes. Smoking is insidious. Some estimates blame cyanide for 400 deaths per year and cyanide is just one of the many powerful toxins in cigarettes. I understand there are as many as 36 different toxins in cigarettes and that cigarettes are far more addictive than heroin. 
Smoking places a very heavy burden on our people. The sad thing is that half the Maori adults smoke which is twice the national average. There are plenty of studies that explain why the tangata whenua may smoke more and why the prevalence of smoking may decline more slowly among our people. I do not have time to go into that issue tonight. The saddest thing for me is that smoking has almost become part of the culture of our people. Our young people are far more likely to have parents who smoke so therefore they are more likely to smoke too. The interesting thing though that I share with members is that I have six children and although George and I have never smoked all of our six children have smoked. So it does not always work when we think that parents provide the role model for their children. Certainly in the case of my children it did not work. 
Darren Hughes 
: Yet. 
Hon TARIANA TURIA 
: I can say very happily that two of them have given up smoking and I am very proud of them because I know how hard it is to do that. I think one of them is trying to give up and still has a bit of a sneaky smoke. One of the real concerns for me is that our young people start smoking younger than most others and they smoke more heavily so the addiction is serious. Quite clearly our people’s health is at great risk. 
The reason too that I particularly support this bill is that it is really clear that smoking in the workplaces bars and clubs that many of our people frequent both as workers and as social participants has a huge impact on their health and well-being. This particular bill restricts smoking in workplaces. It requires all workplaces to have a policy on smoking and to review that policy annually. It restricts or bans smoking in restaurants bars and casinos on public transport and in certain other public places. I cannot see why we would believe that smoking is OK in those places simply because they are private businesses when we know that smoking impacts on anyone else who enters those places too. I acknowledge what people say—that people go there out of choice. However because it has become almost the norm to have smoking in those places people who go there then begin to accept that having second-hand smoke around them is normal too when it is of course not normal. 
 The bill regulates the marketing advertising and promotion of tobacco products and the sponsorship by tobacco companies of products services and events. It bans the sale of tobacco products to people under the age of 18 and provides for control over and disclosure of the contents of tobacco products. There were 397 submissions on this bill and on Supplementary Order Paper 148 from interested groups and individuals representing different views on the extent to which smoking and the sale of smoking products should be controlled. Many submissions were generally supportive of the bill but sought to change some aspects of it. Others considered the measures contained in the bill were unnecessary and overly restrictive. All the evidence was carefully considered and many changes to the bill have been recommended as a consequence of that consideration. It is not possible to detail those changes with regard to each issue raised by the submitters. 
I know the effects of second-hand smoke at a very personal level because I know how quickly it exacerbates my asthma if I go into environments where people are smoking—even quite frankly in an outdoor area. So I am very interested in smoke-free places. 
The aim of this particular legislation is to educate the public and to promote a positive environment of compliance. We do not intend to establish a smoking police. Most New Zealanders will choose to comply voluntarily with this legislation because they want to go to smoke-free places. Similar laws in Canada raised people’s awareness of the risks associated with exposure to second-hand smoke in the workplace. Workers realised that smoking in the home was similarly harmful and had similarly harmful effects on a smoker’s children in the whanau. I understand that the proportion of smokers who have smoke-free homes jumped from 22 percent to 50 percent in Canada. 
I close by saying how thrilled I am to see how marae have taken up the challenge in terms of providing a smoke-free environment. In the rohe that I come from almost every single marae dining-room and whare puni is smoke-free. Every kohanga reo and every kura kaupapa is smoke-free too. That tells me that the people in the rohe where I live are taking the matter very seriously. I know that marae in the north have a 96 percent smoke-free rate which I think is absolutely wonderful. It is the same in the area of Ngati Awa where we have a 95 percent smoke-free environment. My people are taking the issue really seriously. It is really important that we get the very very important message through to our families that smoking is not something that we should encourage or support particularly in our young and particularly in those of our women who are hapu. No reira tena koutou.