O'Connor Damien: Smoke-free Environments Amendment Bill — Procedure Referral to Health Committee Instruction to CommitteeCWH In Committee 
O'Connor Damien: Smoke-free Environments Amendment Bill — Procedure Referral to Health Committee Instruction to CommitteeCWH In Committee 
[Volume:610;Page:7933] 
Hon DAMIEN O'CONNOR (Associate Minister of Health) 
: 
 I will start on the title of the bill. I firstly congratulate my colleague Steve Chadwick for bringing it to the Parliament and shepherding it through the select committee. The title of the bill does reflect what she is trying to do and what this legislation is attempting to do which is to make smoke-free environments and expand them. In fact the speech that we heard from the Hon Peter Dunne was probably heard in this House in 1990 I would guess. I am sure it was because there were people then who said that we could never have smoke-free environments. They said there would be no way in the world that people would abide by the provisions of any smoke-free workplace. I am pleased to say that for the most part—although we have the odd exception but I will not name them—Parliament is smoke-free as are most workplaces in this country. 
What we are attempting to do and what the Government is supporting through this legislation is to create a safe environment for the many many people who work in the hospitality industry in this country. There might be claims of “nanny State” and draconian measures being put in place. The reality is that I am sure those claims were made when we changed the law in this Parliament to bring in the compulsory wearing of seatbelts; when we brought into this Parliament things like speed limits and the compulsion to wear a helmet—what a terrible imposition on liberty to force someone who rides a motorbike to wear a helmet! But thankfully as society evolves we learn things. We learn how to better manage safety how to protect one another and how to protect ourselves. 
I would like to say to Mr Dunne that what this legislation attempts to do—very clearly—by creating a smoke-free environment and expanding the smoke-free environments in the workplaces and hospitality sector is make a safer place for thousands of New Zealanders to work in. There is no doubting the evidence that second-hand smoke kills people. [ 
Interruption 
] Well I am sorry: if people want to bury their heads in the sand—Mr Jones might be one of them—and try to deny that reality— 
Dail Jones 
: There is no evidence to prove that. 
Hon DAMIEN O'CONNOR 
: —the member should hang around the hospitals for a couple of years as I have and see the people who die every day from second-hand smoke. We would be irresponsible if we did not support an initiative brought to the House through a member’s bill sponsored by Steve Chadwick to make the workplace a safer place for thousands of New Zealanders. 
We would not accept a construction site where people wandered around without a helmet. Well we are not going to accept a work environment for thousands of bar staff in and around this country where they face the dangers of second-hand smoke. That is why we are supporting this bill that is why it is a sound bill and that is why it will work I tell Mr Dunne. In the same way in 1990 people doubted the ability to change habits to change the social norm in New Zealand. We have reduced the number of people in New Zealand who smoke. They understand that it is dangerous to smoke; it is dangerous to work in a place where there is smoke. For any Government to ignore that danger—if we brought a bill into this Parliament and said that we will allow people to please themselves— 
Dail Jones 
: It is a Government bill—OK. 
Hon DAMIEN O'CONNOR 
: No the Government is prepared to support this good initiative. If we said that we would allow people the liberty of not wearing a seat belt of not wearing a helmet on their motor bike—I tell Mr Jones—and we would allow people to speed anywhere they like we would be pulled into line and it would be said that we were an irresponsible Government. Well we are not. We will support this bill through with amendments to make improvements to it where necessary. I applaud the member Steve Chadwick and I look forward to the passage of this bill through the House.