Lotu-Iiga SamSMOKE-FREE ENVIRONMENTS (TOBACCO STANDARDISED PACKAGING) AMENDMENT BILLThird ReadingHon Peseta SAM LOTU-IIGA (Associate Minister of Health): I move that the Smoke-free Environments (Tobacco Plain Packaging) Amendment Bill be now read a third time. Malo e lelei in Tongan Language Week. Before I speak on this bill I just want to send my best wishes out to a friend and a colleague Nikki Kaye and wish her well for her full recovery from her current ailments. I just want to wish her well and send our love to her. I want to thank members across this House for the wide support that this bill has received up till this point in time. Today is a historic day and I do want to acknowledge Dame Tariana Turia for her stewardship of this bill—The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Lindsay Tisch): I am sorry to interrupt the honourable Minister. I have just picked up that when you moved the motion you called it Plain Packaging". The actual title of the bill is the Smoke-free Environments (Tobacco Standardised Packaging) Amendment Bill so I just ask that you—have you got the copy of that? If you just move that again and then carry on. Hon Peseta SAM LOTU-IIGA: OK thank you Mr Chairperson. I move that the Smoke-free Environments (Standardised—The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Lindsay Tisch): No—"Tobacco Standardised".Hon Peseta SAM LOTU-IIGA: Sorry. I move That the Smoke-free Environments (Tobacco Standardised Packaging) Amendment Bill be now read a third time. Thank you Mr Chairperson. I want to acknowledge Dame Tariana Turia for her stewardship of this bill in its early stages and particularly her compassion her commitment and her aroha as my predecessor in bringing this bill to the House. I also want to thank the House on behalf of all the individuals the families and the communities around this country who see the harm that smoking causes every day and who want it reduced. Also I want to thank members for voting for this bill on behalf of the young people who will no longer be subject to glamorous branding that may entice them to take up smoking. I also just want to thank all those who work every day in the tobacco control sector—the GPs the nurses and the counsellors—who save lives on a daily basis and who work towards the goals that we share in this House today. We also know that there is no other product that is as widely used and that directly poses as high a level of risk to users as tobacco. This standardised packaging bill is the next significant step to reduce the devastating harm that leads to between 4500 and 5000 premature deaths every year. It is true that there are already significant restrictions on advertising and promotion. There are increases in taxation that I brought to this House earlier this year and we also have a consultation paper out on e-cigarettes which is being consulted on currently but we know that much more is needed. In 1996 25 percent of adults in New Zealand smoked on a daily basis. Today that figure is around 15 percent and we are heading towards 5 percent which is deemed to be the smoke-free target. This bill takes away the last means of promoting tobacco as a desirable product. It stops the promotion of smoking as cool fun and glamorous and it sends a clear message—a clear message—that this Government is serious about ending premature deaths related to tobacco use. Around 13 people die prematurely every day from smoking-related illnesses—that is 13 per day. Since the passing of the Smoke-free Environments Act in 1990 we have seen a shift in the way that tobacco is being marketed in this country. Often the choice of pack design and colours distracts attention away from the important health messages that are contained on packages which reduces their impact. Standardised packaging ensures nothing on the pack undermines the impact of the mandatory graphic picture warnings. This is a bill to protect children and young people from being tempted to try smoking cigarettes. In far too many cases a quick puff leads to a lifelong struggle with nicotine addiction with subsequent major health consequences. For long-term smokers the chance of premature death from a smoking-related cause is over 50 percent. That is a coin toss that no one should have to make. Many of those who die from smoking-related illnesses are still in the middle years of their lives. On average middle-aged smokers who die prematurely lose over 20 years of their lives. A detailed consultation document was released at the end of June and in it there are proposals for mandatory health warnings to cover at least 75 percent of the front of the packs. It also proposes to remove all tobacco imagery from packets. Although the proposals allow for brand names to be standardised they also standardise the way and how and where they are printed on each of those packets. I just want to show an example to the House of what standardised package branding looks like on a potential packet. This is what will make a difference. This type of packet will make a difference to the lives of many New Zealanders. A final decision on those detailed regulations is still to come and will happen after submissions have been carefully considered. We want to get the detail right. We also want a set of regulations that puts the intent of this bill into effect. When cigarette packs come out of a smoker's pocket or are left lying around on a table where others can see them there will be nothing but a drab ugly background colour and large prominent graphic pictorial warnings as I have demonstrated with this packet next to me. This will put off our young people from taking up smoking and will also help encourage existing smokers to quit. As a consequence it will reduce everyone's exposure to tobacco smoke and secondary smoke including those who smoke. The bill allows manufacturers to print information and brand names on the packs but only in a tightly controlled way. Along with the existing suite of tobacco control measures and quit-smoking services standardised packaging is a logical step towards our 2025 goal. In passing the bill this House will be on the right side of history and in good company with other countries that are going down the same path. We know that the United Kingdom France Ireland and Canada are at various points in their journey towards standardised packaging. Australia has had standardised packaging in place since December 2012 and in less than 4 years this has already reduced the number of smokers by at least 108000 people. These results come from an econometrics study published in the Australian Government's post-implementation review. The study found the move to plain packaging or standardised packaging with large health warnings was responsible for 0.55 percentage points out of the 2.2 percentage point decline in smoking prevalence over the study period. In other words standardised packaging alone was responsible for one quarter of the measured decline and that is a measure that is making a real difference to our friends across the Tasman. Standardised cigarette packs are already starting to appear on shelves in France and the UK in advance of them coming into full force in January and May of next year respectively. We too will have standardised packages starting to appear in New Zealand next year by passing this bill into law today. They will be stripped of bright colours and there will be no glamour. The bill will undoubtedly improve the health of New Zealanders and save lives. Along with tobacco excise increases and restrictions already in place this move towards standardised packaging will help people to quit and prevent others from smoking. I commend this bill to the House."