Wednesday, 8 December 2010
Inquiries — I can recall people like my wife who started smoking at 13 or 14. It was quite common amongst young Māoris, and continued for a long, long time. In the 1950s and 1960s, when every Māori who was 16 was working, they also started smoking because it was the new kick. It was freedom and epitomised being, for once, in control of something. For them, having generally been manual labourers in the country and the towns—wherever they lived—smoking became a huge addiction. It was coupled with boozing in the big bars. It was coupled with a whole lot of other issues. Certainly it is time for the country to grow up.
← Inquiries — inquiry into the tobacco industry in Aotearoa and the consequences of tobacco use for Māori, a report which Labour, of course, supports. A whole lot of presenters came to the committee. Smoking certainly has a long history in Māoridom. To hazard a guess, over many, many years young Māori, and Māori families overall, have been addicted to cigarettes. I can recall in the 1960s that for my parents and everyone else it was more common to smoke than not to smoke. There are international developments, writings, and scribings in relation to those in the low-income brackets and those people on the fringe of society who participate in smoking. I have seen relations in my own whānau who have passed on only because of cigarette smoking. One of the things I never did in all my life—I did a whole lot of other things—was to smoke. But through my wife, whom, sadly, I lost 16 years ago to lung cancer, and through other members of the family, I have certainly seen up front the results of smoking. I am a strong advocate of trying to stop smoking. The tobacco industry’s advertising campaign, which has continued for years, is something that needs to be broached. The presenters certainly told us that.
Inquiries — I recall that when Labour was in Government we started to push the legislation banning smoking in restaurants and cafes. Do members recall that? There was a whole lot of moaning and people getting emotional about intruding on people’s rights. I challenge anybody to go into a cafe or restaurant now and light up a cigarette—and that ban was introduced not too long ago. We did that as a nation and we can do a whole lot of things with this bill. People will decry it and say it will not work but I am starting to see a lot of young Māori smoking again. If they are not busy, they do that. But the price of cigarettes—the cost and the impact on family budgets, especially those of working-class people—is not on and I am certainly encouraged that we have got to this stage. My colleagues on the select committee have done a great job. →