New Zealand: Plain Pack Tobacco Fight Heats up

Source from:  Independent Newspapers Ltd. / STUFF (nz)  04/15/2014

A select committee is being accused of using children as political pawns, and the tobacco industry of filibustering.

It's all part of the battle over whether to strip tobacco products of all advertising which returns to Parliament this week.

On Wednesday the health select committee will hold a briefing on the more than 17,000 submissions on the Smoke-Free Environments (Tobacco Plain Packaging) Amendment Bill.

If given royal assent, the bill would strip all advertising from cigarette packaging aside from a plain type name of the particular variety.

But the decision of the committee to open the process by showing the media "graphic and colourful" artwork by children who had submitted in support of the bill has been attacked as bias by the New Zealand Association of Convenience Stores (NZACS).

Spokesman Carrick Graham said the committee was using the work of children on an issue of intellectual property they could not possibly understand.

"To wheel out kids in front of a very serious select committee on an issue that has serious ramifications for New Zealand's international trading reputation, I find it offensive. They are being used as pawns in a highly political environment," Graham said.

NZACS counts Imperial Tobacco, British American Tobacco and Philip Morris International among its members, while Graham is a former tobacco lobbyist.

Paul Hutchison, the National MP for Hunua rejected any allegation of bias and said the committee would hear the submissions with an open mind.

The display of children's artwork was just part of a briefing designed to "set the scene" for committee hearings.

"There have been more people that want to heard from the tobacco industry than from those who support the legislation."

Anti-smoking group ASH said it was the smoking lobby which was using dubious tactics.

It is understood at least 50 of the submissions come from retailers, written in languages other than English or Maori, which NZACS says should be translated into English.

Ash spokesman Michael Colhoun said this was an attempt to filibuster the bill.

"This will only delay the process and add to taxpayers' costs."

Of the 17,000 submissions virtually all are understood to be form type submissions supplies organised by both proponents and opponents of plain packaging.

Websites for the Heart Foundation, ASH, Te Ara Ha Ora and the Smokefree Coalition all offer advice and template forms to submit in support of the bill.

Around 4000 submissions are said to have from retailers, which NZACS claims is around two thirds of all retailers which sell tobacco.

But the most submissions, more than 10,000, are believed to have come in the form of a postcard type submission arranged in a joint campaign by New Zealand's three major tobacco companies.

British American Tobacco spokeswoman Dawn O'Connor said the forms were designed to "assist" retailers and consumers.

"The postcards were also available for dairies and tobacconists to give to members of the public if they wished to and a team of people approached adults, primarily smokers, in urban areas around New Zealand to discuss the issue of plain packaging," O'Connor said.

Despite taking part in the campaign Philip Morris International confirmed it had no plans to appear before the select committee, saying in a statement that the company believed it had nothing to add beyond its submission.

The bill is highly likely to pass, with only Act MP John Banks voting against it at first reading.

However plain packaging could be years away, with Prime Minister John Key indicating that the Government will await the outcome of a World Trade Organisation challenge to plain packaging in Australia before sending the legislation to the governor-general for Royal Assent. Enditem