Lees-Galloway IainIAIN LEES-GALLOWAY (Labour—Palmerston North): Phew! We have finally got here to the third reading of the Smoke-free Environments (Tobacco Standardised Packaging) Amendment Bill. It only started 3 years ago and we have moved through the process at lightning speed and a mere 3 years and 15000 deaths later here we are at the third reading of this piece of legislation. I do not intend to take up too much of the House's time this afternoon because we have already taken long enough getting to this point. But I just want to reiterate what others have said about the importance of this measure. This is about getting rid of that last bastion of advertising. We got rid of tobacco advertising a few decades ago then we got rid of the tobacco displays but still having the packets out on the kitchen table or on the table at the pub was and is a form of advertising and it is important that we eliminate that. One thing that has not been spoken about so far is the very clever ways that the tobacco industry already uses what limited opportunities it has to advertise. Even things like using different colours—this has been done deliberately to convey particular messages about different brands of tobacco and different brands of cigarettes. So red for instance connotes a strong flavour; green is coolness or menthol; white packs connote being low tar. You hear words like slim" or "mild" which are intended to project an idea that somehow some cigarettes are less harmful than others.All of these methods are used to try to encourage people to smoke and to try to convey incorrect and inappropriate messages about tobacco. This standardised packaging will eliminate all of that. All tobacco packets are going to look the same—all cigarette packets are going to look the same. They will have a different name on them and that is about it. They will have a very large graphic warning. The other thing that the evidence shows us—and there is really strong evidence in favour of standardised packaging no matter what the tobacco industry tries to tell us—is that people who see a plain packet remember the message in the graphic warning a lot more clearly than they do when it is jumbled in with the branding of the cigarette brand itself. That is really important that we can actually use these packets as a way to convey the messages that we want people to see about the impacts of smoking tobacco—messages like "Smoking can kill you." "Cigarettes are addictive." or "Tobacco causes fatal lung diseases in non-smokers." The messages that we have been putting on those packets for years are actually going to be a lot clearer now that we will have standardised packaging. It is a lot more than just trying to make them look less glamorous; it is actually about conveying the messages that we want people to hear about this product. Why do we do this to tobacco and why are we not doing it to any other product? Well tobacco is unique in that when used as the manufacturer suggests you should use it it kills half of its users. There is no other product that does that. Yes other products can be abused and misused but this product—tobacco—when used as directed kills half of its users. This is a unique product and it should be treated in a unique way. I have no qualms about any affronts to the intellectual property rights of tobacco users. I do not know whether David Seymour is going to vote for or against this legislation. He seems to have lost his principles around property rights in the last few days. Maybe he will demand a sunset clause on this piece of legislation. This is a good move. We have taken long enough in getting it here. Let us crack on and get it done. Let us take the next step in making New Zealand smoke-free by 2025."