Hutchison Paul: Smoke-free Environments (Controls and Enforcement) Amendment Bill — Third Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Hutchison Paul: Smoke-free Environments (Controls and Enforcement) Amendment Bill — Third Reading 
[Sitting date: 14 July 2011. Volume:674;Page:20126. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Dr PAUL HUTCHISON (National—Hunua) 
: 
 It gives me great pleasure to take a call on the Smoke-free Environments (Controls and Enforcement) Amendment Bill. This is one of the great occasions and it is marked particularly by the fact that just about everyone in Parliament supports this very very important public health measure. 
The fact that Parliament does agree on the basic facts—that something like 5000 premature deaths are caused through smoking and something like 500 premature deaths are caused through second-hand smoke—is particularly salutary. But there is still a long way to go. We are told that in the order of 50 percent of young Maori women still smoke. Again I think it was Tariana Turia who told us that overall something like 40 percent of Maori aged between 15 and 60 years smoked and the figure for the whole population is about 20 percent. We have a long way to go. 
The bill also covers herbal products and it must be mentioned that experts told us and confirmed that smoking herbal products carries significant health harms. Fifteen years ago one would hardly have imagined that we would be passing legislation to effectively prohibit retail displays of tobacco and herbal products including on the internet in duty-free stores and during sponsored events. The legislation introduces very tough enforcement laws to back that up. Corporate offenders can be fined up to $50000 so this indeed is pretty tough on them. 
Evidence has accumulated from around the world that removing signage is effective and last night I described the Pavlovian dog reflex. Certainly the evidence from places like Iceland and Canada has accumulated and there is no doubt that that particular reflex has been described in medical literature for many many years. We know that addicts will come into a store or a supermarket innocently wanting a bottle of milk and bingo the signs are in front of them and they cannot resist buying another packet of cigarettes. So the evidence behind this is pretty overwhelming. 
The Health Committee worked extremely well together through a somewhat complex and challenging set of submissions but we all enjoyed them. I remember Kevin Hague in the first reading debate saying it was intriguing to see individual retailers think of ingenious reasons why they should be exempted from this legislation. It was also fascinating to hear one extremely innovative submission that this legislation contravened the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act. As I understand libertarian philosophy the basic premise is as much freedom as possible provided it does not harm others. There is no doubt that second-hand smoke does harm others. 
Finally I too acknowledge the many many individuals and organisations who over a long period of time have contributed to bringing about this legislation. I particularly want to mention Dr Murray Laugesen. He has dedicated pretty well his entire professional career on this subject in New Zealand. Professor Robert Beaglehole is an international expert in this area. I also include the organisations that were mentioned by Minister Turia. Of course people within this Parliament have contributed and I mention Mr Ryall and Tau Henare and of course Tariana Turia for becoming a legend in terms of championing this legislation. It is great to have multiparty consensus and this certainly signals another step towards New Zealand becoming smoke-free.