Press Release – The Maori Party

Subordinate legislation is the type of Bill that is probably of most interest to lawyers.
Subordinate Legislation (Confirmation and Validation) Bill

Rahui Katene. MP for Te Tai Tonga

Tuesday 20 October 2009

Subordinate legislation is the type of Bill that is probably of most interest to lawyers.

In essence, this Bill is all about confirming or validating specific orders and regulations.  It’s often all about the timing – without the process of legislation the Acts would no longer be valid.

Today’s Bill is a mixed bunch in more ways than one.

There are orders to amend the commodity levies for passionfruit, summerfruit and Satsuma mandarins.

There are prohibition orders around exports and imports; around toothfish and tobacco; and a set of fees, charges and levies around animal products.

There is an indexation for alcohol beverages and the non-grape wine levy.

In short, there’s all the ingredients here for a party – and I’m not talking about the political party variety.

And this is where the Maori Party has a particular interest in the regulations and validating provisions under debate.

Let me look, in particular, at the impact of this legislation as it relates to the Excise Duties for tobacco products.

I have spoken before in this House, of the concerns that I have around the over-use and misuse of substances such as alcohol and tobacco.

I come to this from a number of sources.   As a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, I am of course influenced by the Word of Wisdom – the code of health that we practice which encourages us to avoid substances such as tobacco and alcohol.

It is a personal position which sits very comfortably alongside the policy position we are advocating within the Maori Party.

The facts are overwhelming.

The Ministry of Health, just a month ago, told the Maori Affairs Select Committee that Maori women have the highest smoking prevalence (49.3 per cent) followed by Maori men (41.5 per cent).

They also reminded the committee that young Maori were more likely to smoke and second-hand smoke exposure was higher among Maori than non-Maori.

As any walk amongst our family urupa would tell us tobacco is the leading cause of preventable death amongst Māori and is known to cause cancers, heart disease, stroke and respiratory illnesses.

And of course it’s not just those with the cigarette in their month that are the problem.  Tobacco products also harm non-smokers through exposure to second hand smoke. Ministry of Health statistics show that smoking is a major issue for Māori in terms of health, equity, economic status and cultural identity.

Given all of that, the Maori Party is delighted to support the amendment in this legislation which makes a CPI inflationary increase to the rates of excise and excise-equivalent duties on tobacco products.

What this means is that the annual adjustment in the excise duty on tobacco ensures that the excise duty proportion of the price of tobacco does not become cheaper over time in real terms.

In plain English, tobacco products will not become cheaper to consumers in real terms as their income levels rise.

The House will be aware, that the Maori Party has successfully negotiated a select committee inquiry into the impacts of smoking on Maori.

That inquiry will review the historical actions of the tobacco industry to promote tobacco use amongst Māori and will note the impact of tobacco use on the health, economic, social and cultural wellbeing of Māori.

The inquiry will address the impact of tobacco use on Māori development aspirations and opportunities as well as including a range of policy and legislative measures to address any findings that may come out of that.

The Maori Party will also introduce a Member’s Bill banning the importation, manufacture and sale of tobacco products in Aotearoa.

But that’s not all.

My colleague, and the Associate Minister of Health Tariana Turia, is also doing everything possible to invest in the right people, programmes, products and processes to successfully support our people to quit the deadly habit of smoking.

Mr Speaker, I wanted to go into some detail in looking at the tobacco products indexation because I think it deomstrates that subordinate legislation can be of fundamental importance in supporting vital government activities – activities that must be mandated by legislation such as this.

Another key aspect of the legislation is the changes to the Social Security (Rates of Benefits and Allowances).  The effect of this part of the Bill is to make CPI (inflationary) increase to benefit payments.

As the House will be aware, all benefits are indexed for movements in the Consumers Price Index (CPI).

This increase is done through the Annual General Adjustment, which increases benefits, pensions, allowances and some other assistance thresholds.  Some of these increases (such as New Zealand Superannuation) are due to legislation, while others (like core benefits) are done by convention.

As I understand it, these CPI increases to benefits were not locked in by the previous Government, and so we are pleased that the changes are included in this Bill which will ultimately mean an increase in benefits.

While of course we support this increase, the key issue for the Maori Party is to really understand whether or not the level of current benefits is sufficient to support whänau wellbeing.

The Maori Party has consistently advocated for benefits to be set at a level that enables families to meet their basic needs, including their housing and food costs.

We have been concerned at the way in which low benefit levels are contributing to child poverty and the conditions that thwart healthy child development.

We know that benefit levels are too low and are a major contributor to the disturbing levels of poverty.

And so while we support the changes in the rates of benefits and allowances we want to place on record again, our resounding call, as articulated in our confidence and supply agreement, is that we will see that we will achieve significant outcomes in whanau ora, through eliminating poverty and advocating for social justice.

And lest it be unclear – we expect to see these advance not just in our life time but in the term of this parliament –there is no time to wait for all people to enjoy the state of wellbeing they are entitled to.

In respect of this fundamental goal we then support this Bill at its first reading.

ends

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