Williamson Maurice: Smoke-free Environments Amendment Bill — Referral to Health Committee Procedure In Committee 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Williamson Maurice: Smoke-free Environments Amendment Bill — Referral to Health Committee Procedure In Committee 
[Sitting date: 15 October 2003. Volume:612;Page:9232. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon MAURICE WILLIAMSON (National—Pakuranga) 
: 
 I start off by acknowledging Craig McNair’s speech— 
Rt Hon Winston Peters 
: I raise a point of order Mr Chairperson. 
Hon MAURICE WILLIAMSON 
: Give us a break Winston. This is my first speech in months and I get 10 seconds. 
Rt Hon Winston Peters 
: I know and I am here to help. I seek leave for Mr Williamson because he is not being given a fair go to have a 30-minute speech if he so wishes. 
Hon MAURICE WILLIAMSON 
: Craig McNair said something interesting. He said he was grateful to be in a party that gave him the choice as to how he voted and he also asked himself the question of how he would vote. I want to paraphrase that: I feel lucky that I have allowed myself to have a free choice on this issue tonight. I have asked myself the same question and I have decided I will vote against this bill because I think it is a bloody stupid bill. 
However I also want to pick up on the comments made by Katherine Rich who is a list MP and who said she assiduously went through Otago doing a pub crawl to find out what the views there were. I want to tell her that as a good constituent MP I do not do that just as a one-off; I do that on a regular regular basis. I crawl the pubs of my electorate at least once a week making sure that I keep a finger on the pulse—I think I would call it that—of what my electorate wants. I want to bring up one example of what it wants. I have put in an amendment for this one example so I hope Labour members listen to this carefully. 
The Howick Returned Services Association came to me at my constituency office and said it desperately needed my help. The old diggers there are smokers. Lots and lots of them— 
Jill Pettis 
: Are dying. 
Hon MAURICE WILLIAMSON 
: I hear Jill Pettis. I thought Wednesday was her day for elocution lessons so I do not know what she is still doing here. The old diggers in their 90s—she says they are dying; well they got to that age—are smokers. What did the Howick Returned Services Association do to try to comply with all the lunatic laws that are coming around? It has spent a fortune on air conditioning systems that evacuate the air every so many seconds and put purified air back down. It has a special end where no smoke goes and the non-smokers can go down there. It has another end where the moment that smoke comes out of your gob it goes up into a machine and is gone. It has surveyed its members—let us remember this is not just a club where people can walk in off the street; this is a club for members or people who are signed in—and 96 percent said they wanted to keep the option of being able to smoke. 
I have not done a formal survey of the club’s members but I can tell the Committee because of the reception I get there sometimes that I would say that the vast bulk of them are Labour Party supporters. And are they dirty on the Labour Party members who are not going to let them have that choice any more! They are a closed group of club members only. They have spent a fortune on air purifiers. Many of them are addicted simply because they were forced into smoking when they were off fighting a war for our freedom—where is the irony in that? They went to war to fight for our freedom and now we are telling them we are sorry but we will take their freedom away. They are quite adamant that at the end of the lovely food hall where people can eat there is a proper no-smoking area that is adhered to. People can go and have a meal without having smoke blown in their face. Another end of the bar is a non-smoking end and the air there is as crisp and as clear as can be found anywhere. In fact out on the Pakuranga highway there is more smoke from the fumes of cars than one would ever actually get from cigarettes. But what does this member Steve Chadwick and her Labour members say to those old diggers? They say: “We are sorry that you became addicted to something years ago. It is probably not even your own fault because it was foisted on you when you were in the military. We are sorry that you happen to have lived to 97 because smoking kills—though it did not happen to get you. But now we will start to decide on your behalf what is right and wrong.” 
I say that is a disgrace. The once-proud Labour Party should be ashamed tonight. I know there are members over on the Government side of the Chamber who openly say in the corridors of this Parliament that the Government is a disgraceful outfit and that they are all being whipped into line. I think it is now time for them to front up. It is time for them to face up to this Committee and say they will not be forced into something. 
I think it is fine to prohibit smoking when there are no other options. I think smoke-free aeroplanes are correct. I want to let members know I am not a smoker—never have been—and I do not like it. When people are in an environment where they do not have a choice then I am happy for it to be smoke-free. The air on an aeroplane circulates around and around; the same air goes through the conditioning systems and people end up smoking someone else’s smoke. But what if one wants to go out to a restaurant? I do not like smoke so I particularly choose restaurants where there is either a non-smoking section or a light level of smoke in the air and that is what the situation should be.