Carter David: Smoke-free Environments Amendment Bill — Procedure Referral to Health Committee Instruction to CommitteeCWH In Committee 
Carter David: Smoke-free Environments Amendment Bill — Procedure Referral to Health Committee Instruction to CommitteeCWH In Committee 
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Hon DAVID CARTER (NZ National) 
: 
 It is with pleasure that I speak on the title of this bill. I notice that the debate has now developed into a very wide-ranging debate. I want to say at the outset that under no circumstances would I be prepared to support legislation as bad as this. I say that because I wonder how far this Government will drive this nanny State so that people are not given the choice of what they can do with their own lives. We have heard contributions from Labour Party members and the Greens. They have said that this measure is needed because people have to go into smoky bars. I am not aware of any person being forced into a smoky bar. We used to have a similar situation with people complaining about restaurants. Over a period of time the market has determined that people do not find it pleasant to sit in restaurants with people smoking at the table next to them. Over time we have seen that restaurants have been able to adopt the practice of having no-smoking areas and in some cases a significant number have taken the opportunity of having no smoking at all. Those businesses have survived. In fact they have used the fact they are non-smoking as a marketing ploy. So if this is such an issue in the pubs and the Returned Services Associations again let the market have the opportunity to adopt the ability to market themselves as smoke-free and see whether they survive. I think that some of them would do extremely well. 
I note that this particular legislation is here in the name of Steve Chadwick on a members’ day. Yet when Associate Minister of Health Damien O’Connor took a call he spoke throughout his contribution about “we” having a position. [ 
Interruption 
] The Government has a position—the member is dead right and this is a whipped piece of legislation that should not be debated. 
Hon Damien O'Connor 
: No. 
Hon DAVID CARTER 
: Damien O’Connor says it is not. Let him take the next call and name which Labour member of Parliament will stand up against Helen Clark. Let us find out. This legislation is Government policy and the Government should have the fortitude to debate it amongst Government business of the day. It should not be a member’s bill at all. 
We then heard Sue Kedgley talking about how dangerous this product is for people’s health. We heard how dangerous it is for people to have to sit in smoky bars and go home and shake and air their clothes because of the stench that descends on them because they made the choice to go into a bar in the first place. Also in the House today we had a question that reiterates the longstanding debate that the Greens run—about legitimising cannabis smoking. Where is the logic in the Government having before this House legislation to make it more and more difficult for people who are addicted to what is currently a legal product—tobacco—while at the same time the Greens and I know a good number of the Labour caucus are keen to legislate to legitimise cannabis? What is the logic for that? 
Hon Damien O'Connor 
: Name one! 
Hon DAVID CARTER 
: Ruth Dyson has said at many candidate meetings—I have been on the platform with her—that she supports the legalising of cannabis so that people have the right to smoke cannabis at will. So there is one and I bet Damien O’Connor knows there are plenty more. Then Steve Chadwick took a call. She told us a figure that I have not heard before—that is 50 babies have died because of second-hand smoke in the past year. The figure of those dying just continues to get bigger and bigger. We had evidence before the Health Committee that apparently 300 people a year die of second-hand smoke in New Zealand. By the time the bill went through the committee that figure had been magnified to 400 people. I say to the member in charge of this bill that she should table the 400 death certificates that have been filed and state that those people died of second-hand smoke. I guarantee that member will not be able to table those death certificates. 
Brian Connell 
: Not even one. 
Hon DAVID CARTER 
: Not one because they do not exist. What we see here is a huge manufacturing and embellishment of the story about the effect of second-hand smoke on people’s health. I say we must stick to where the issues should be. People who have been addicted for years do not have the ability to stop smoking instantly. They are the very people who support the pubs—for example up and down Damien O’Connor’s electorate—and those pubs will go out of business because of this legislation. 
Hon Damien O'Connor 
: They’re not. 
Hon DAVID CARTER 
: Damien O’Connor says: “They’re not.” and he may be right because those pubs will defy the legislation because it is unworkable. They are the only two choices.