Tobacco Products Amendment Bill
te-pati-maori
Thu Apr 29 2010 12:00:00 GMT+1200 (New Zealand Standard Time)
Tobacco Products Amendment Bill
Thursday, 29 April 2010, 10:07 am
Speech: The Maori Party
Excise and Excise-Equivalent Duties Table (Tobacco Products) Amendment Bill
In the 2008 campaign, there was one line in the Maori Party policy statement that established a precedent for this Bill today.
That commitment was to introduce a Tobacco out of Aotearoa Bill.
Today, the Excise and Excise-Equivalent Duties Table (Tobacco Products) Amendment Bill expresses our heartfelt commitment to saving lives.
I want to congratulate Tariana Turia for having the courage and the foresight to do what she knows is right – to do what we all know is right.
It is not right to lose our loved ones prematurely; to chop fifteen years off their lifespan – a lifespan that in the case of Maori is already less than it should be.
It is not right that too many children are growing up in homes vulnerable to the impact of smoking related illness and premature death.
It is not right that too many babies are being exposed to tobacco related harm in utero.
This bill is long overdue.
The Maori Party celebrates the fact that we know of the amazing potential this Bill offers for Maori communities to benefit.
The numbers of Maori smoking are about double the rate compared to the rest of the population; and a disproportionate number of Maori die prematurely.
Maori in all age groups had higher smoking rates than non-Maori.
And in particular, Maori women had the highest smoking rates of all groups at the rate of 49 percent.
Another interesting fact that emerged from last year’s study of Maori smoking and tobacco use, was that 73% of Maori smokers use roll-your-own tobacco.
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The Minister has spoken of roll-your-own tobacco as being seen as the cheap alternative.
Well, this bill now puts stop to that perception.
Roll-your-owns will now face the same tax rate as tailor-mades.
I have no doubt that given this profile of Maori smokers, today’s moves are not going to be universally popular within our constituency.
Indeed, I will no doubt have a job to do explaining this development to my own son and daughter.
I am not sure the answer, “mothers always know best” will work with him – or indeed the other well-known slogan, “it’s for your own good”.
But we are standing right behind the Minister and the Government on this move – and it is because of our great love for our people.
This is a policy which places love on the agenda
It places bread and butter on the agenda. If we assume that the average smoker smokes around four thousand cigarettes a year; quitting completely would save that smoker around $2100 a year now – and around $2700 in three years time.
That means more money for kai for the whanau.
But it’s more than what money can buy.
The whole purpose of this legislation is that people will be prompted to stop smoker. Even if they can’t quit, if the average smoker was to cut down by just one cigarette a day today – and eventually up to three fewer cigarettes a day – that would offset the price rises.
As I said before, however, we’re not just talking about more cash in the pocket.
There’s a massive cost to the system as well.
An estimate in a 2007 study on Tobacco Taxation in New Zealand suggested that the costs of smoking to the health system were between $300 to $350 million per year, however I understand that there are some more recent estimates that put that figure up as high as one to $1.6 billion per year.
That is a massive cost to taxpayers which could be put to much better use than seeing good money literally go up in smoke.
But of course it’s not just about how much all this will cost.
The Maori Party supports an increase in the price of tobacco, first and foremost, because of the substantial health gains which can be achieved.
We will support any interventions which reduce premature deaths; which reduce illnesses, which will reduce hospitalisations related to tobacco use.
A decade or so ago our co-leader, Dr Pita Sharples, was the poster boy for a campaign, called ‘it’s about whanau’.
The campaign featured twelve ex-smokers describing their motivation for giving up.
The campaign focused on the wellbeing of the whanau by supporting whanau members who smoked to quit, and to stay quit.
I can remember Pita’s advertisement in particular, describing his reasons for giving up, as being all about his mokopuna.
It is a powerful message which we must continue to uphold.
Our marae are deprived of far too many Maori leaders, of kuia, kaumatua.
We lose our people too early – and with that, the transmission of vital knowledge about whakapapa, about our cultural heritage.
We must be smokefree if we are to fully explore our potential.
It has never been a better time for this tobacco tax increase to happen.
The support and strength that whanau will need to live a healthy, smokefree lifestyle is totally consistent with the type of investment in whanau we see associated with the flagship policy of this Government, Whanau Ora.
The Maori Party acknowledges the significance of the whanau and the importance Maori place on the maintenance of our whakapapa as a very powerful resource in helping whanau to be auahi kore.
So if my son and daughter are listening to this debate, I would say, it’s all about whanau.
Together, we can support each other to quit - and for our rangatahi to never start.
We must ensure that smokers are part of the solution – that we restore to our whanau the respect that we must place in the first breath of life.
It will not be easy but who ever said it was easy sitting at the hospital bed watching a relative suffer from lung disease?
Where is the joy in counting off the cousins with cancer of the lung, head, neck; oesophagus, pancreas, cervix, heart disease?
The key challenge for us all, across this Parliament, is to get in behind this new Bill, and to promote the value of staying smokefree.
The Maori Party believes that Government has a vital role in encouraging New Zealanders to quit smoking.
I recall a survey from the Health Sponsorship Council in 2008 which found that some 63.9 percent of all people, and 29.5 percent of current smokers agreed that the tax on cigarettes and tobacco should be increased and all the extra money used to help smokers wanting to quit.
We want to see funding for smoking cessation services increased to help smokers to quit, including specific services designed for Maori and Pasifika peoples.
Mr Speaker, this is a very important day for all our whanau – a day in which we live up to the promise that is in all of us, for a healthy smokefree future.
We are proud to support this Bill.
ENDS
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