The Tai Tokerau MP said he wanted a ban on the sale and manufacture of tobacco.
Govt won’t ban smoking in cars, Turia says
The government isn’t prepared to ban smoking in cars with children in them, Tariana Turia has admitted.
May 5 2014
The associate health minister and Maori Party co-leader has been pushing for a ban and says it’s an issue that really worries her.
“While it has given me huge cause for concern, at this point I have been unable to persuade my cabinet colleagues of the need for regulatory or legislative change,” she told a cardiology conference in Melbourne on Sunday.
Mrs Turia said Otago University research found children from Wainuiomata were 11 times more likely to be exposed to cigarette smoking in cars than those in more affluent Karori, another Wellington suburb.
She’s been running anti-smoking campaigns for years and has succeeded in bringing in regular increases in tobacco excise and the removal of tobacco displays from shops.
Mrs Turia has a bill in parliament that would force cigarettes to be sold in plain packets, but the government won’t pass it until a legal challenge mounted by the big tobacco companies against the Australian government has been settled.
Australia introduced plain packaging in December 2012.
The multi-national companies have threatened to take legal action in New Zealand if the bill is passed, claiming that banning brands is illegal and would breach international trade agreements.
Prime Minister John Key has said it would cost millions to fight them in court and the government isn’t prepared to pay.
10 December 2007
Press Release: University of Otago?
?MPs misuse research on smoking – Study
?A new study has found that denial by New Zealand MPs of the risks of second-hand smoke (SHS) was common during 2000-2005. Almost half of the 21 MPs who spoke about health research on SHS denied or were sceptical that it was harmful, according to the University of Otago, Wellington study.
?At least five of these MPs also used tobacco industry versions of research, which diminished or denied the health risks from second-hand smoke.
?“The research clearly shows a need for the health sector to counter tobacco industry misinformation” says Dr George Thomson from the University’s Department of Public Health.
?The research covered the period from 2000-2005, when there was intense debate about the extension of smokefree legislation to include bars and clubs. There was also strong opposition from much of the hospitality industry to the new legislation.
?The research analysed parliamentary debates, media reports, parliamentary communications and media releases for statements on SHS. It found repeated attacks by MPs on the key research conducted by Professor Alistair Woodward and Dr Murray Laugesen. This research gave an estimate of nearly 400 deaths per year in New Zealand from SHS.
?Over the six years, at least nine MPs from four different parties cast doubt on the research evidence of harm to health from SHS. They were: Doug Woolerton and Dail Jones (NZ First), David Carter and Richard Worth (National), Heather Roy and Deborah Coddington (ACT), and Peter Dunne, Marc Alexander and Paul Adams (United Future).
?David Carter, amongst other critical statements, described the New Zealand SHS death estimates as a “huge manufacturing and embellishment of the story about the effect of second-hand smoke on peoples’ health.” This is despite extensive international scientific evidence supporting these estimates.
?Dail Jones stated that ‘Custard is more dangerous than second-hand smoke. …[and] milk …is worse than second-hand smoke.’
?“This study indicates how research can be denied, misrepresented and distorted by some politicians, even when the science is clear, and 90% of voters believed SHS is harmful,” says Dr Thomson.
?ENDS?
