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Hone Harawira - Source: Q+A -
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Hone Harawira interviewed by Paul Holmes
PAUL Well talk about the reformed smoker, welcome back, Mr Hone Harawira the Maori MP, he used to smoke, now he wants to lynch the tobacco company executives. The facts are simple, more than 7,000 New Zealanders smoke, nearly half of Maori smoke.
HONE HARAWIRA Seven hundred thousand actually Paul.
PAUL More than 700,000 New Zealanders smoke, nearly half of Maori smoke and one in three Maori die from smoking cigarettes. This week the Maori Affairs Select Committee granted Hone Harawira's request for a full inquiry into the tobacco industry and the consequences of tobacco use especially for Maori, this will begin next year, this inquiry, we asked tobacco companies to appear this morning to put their case, British American Tobacco said no, Imperial said they would only consider coming on once they knew more about the inquiry's plans. Phillip Morris did not phone us back. Hone Harawira the man they all seem to be frightened of joins me on Q+A, good morning. What do you actually want the inquiry to do?
HONE I want the inquiry to highlight the deaths of New Zealanders from this product and hopefully come up with some ideas about legislative measures to address them, simple as that.
PAUL What do you want to actually see Hone, do you want to see a ban, do you want to see prohibition?
HONE I'd like to see the production sale and manufacture of tobacco in Aotearoa banned yeah. I think that unlike alcohol and other drugs which people like, with cigarettes most people actually want to stop more than 80% of smokers want to stop, so it's not like there's going to be a black market, it's an opportunity for us to do something to help this country become healthy.
PAUL But they are addicted so they will continue to get their smokes.
HONE Well I do know from talking to smokers and from having been a smoker myself, that all we want most of us, is an opportunity to stop, we just don't know how. Most smokers say to me they support this because they can't stop themselves, this would help them.
PAUL But prohibition on drugs doesn't seem to work, we know from the United States in the 1920s with alcohol, dope is banned in New Zealand as well, but plenty of dope around, P is banned, plenty of P around.
HONE Again, those things still flourish in the blackmarket because most people still want them, most cigarette smokers don't want to smoke, it's an addiction that they don't actually enjoy. You can't create a blackmarket in a situation where people don't really want the product.
PAUL So you'd ban cigarette sales, ban tobacco, production of tobacco, marketing tobacco, well that's already banned, you'd ban the sales but people will still want their smokes, that's what I'm saying, because you would now turn them into criminals.
HONE No no no no no.
PAUL Well we've had that....
HONE No no no no no no no, we have deliberately not targeted smokers because I know from having been a smoker that if you target smokers all you do is piss them off, so you go after the tobacco companies and most smokers actually support what it is that we're trying to do here, that's number one, number two you have to arrange a regime whereby you can help people wean themselves off tobacco, but again going back to that fact again, that most New Zealanders who do smoke want to stop, it's not that hard to do.
PAUL You see even Helen Clark thought that prohibition had its limits and might not work, she said the trouble with prohibition and banning and she is very stridently anti tobacco, she said it makes criminals of addicts. So the courts clog up because someone's been caught smoking a cigarette.
HONE No no no, no no no, the courts don't clog up with smokers, because we're not banning smoking, we're banning the production, sale and manufacture of tobacco. The only people who would end up in court would be the tobacco companies, but if we pass the law they'd be gone tomorrow Paul, wouldn't you be happy?
PAUL Probably so I suppose, but where would we get our smokes? From the gangs?
HONE No you wouldn't get your smokes from the gangs.
PAUL Of course you would you'd drive it underground.
HONE No you wouldn't get your smokes from the gangs, because the gangs find greater money in other drugs, cigarettes are not that kind of a product. You would maintain a measure of production for weaning off purposes, for all of those kinds of situations but again going back to the knowledge and the fact that most New Zealanders want to stop it's just enough to get them out of the game. Paul, 5,000 New Zealanders every single year die form cigarettes. If a country did that to us Paul, we'd declare war, a company's doing it to us and we're letting it happen. There's something wrong there.
PAUL At the same time though Hone a nicotine addict doesn't rush out and bang an old lady on the head because he hasn't got any smokes left. Why don't you tackle crime?
HONE That's great if a smoker's not going to go to knock and old lady on the head over cigarettes, well let's just ban it, it's not gonna lead to any crime.
PAUL No but what I'm saying is the nicotine addict is not a danger to society, look at the prison population announced this week, more people in prison, 50% of them Maori, Maori comprise 50% of the population, why don't you take on ...
HONE If you want to get into this whole sort of gang thing Paul, in the history of the gangs say since 1970 there'd be less than 500 people have died as a result of that, in that same 30 year period, in that same 30 year period, listen to this Paul nearly 100,000 New Zealanders have died from tobacco. What's the big fuss about gangs, it's not gangs that's killing New Zealanders it's tobacco.
PAUL Alright I'm sure that many people are sympathetic to what you're trying to do.
HONE I think most people are, you are.
PAUL Yes, yes, and they know your heart is in it, but can I say that the time the money and the effort from the inquiry, that the inquiry will cost you and take, the inquiry will say yes people get addicted to smoking it's terrible, and this is a terrible product to be selling, they get ill and then they die. Now Labour and National do not support a ban, so where do you go - it's all over rover.
HONE No it's not all over rover, and one of the reasons why we want to take the inquiry on the road is to try and really maximise public support for action to be taken against tobacco companies.
PAUL Would you be able to bring them in duty free?
HONE Hell no, I think I'd like New Zealand to be the very first major tourist destination that was smoke free, wouldn't it have been great if John Key had have been able to make that his number one on his top ten on Letterman.
PAUL Most interesting, Hone Harawira, Maori Party MP, thank
you very much for coming in. Still to come your feedback on
Q+A, what's going to be happening in the week ahead.
Add a Comment:
Post new commentYady said on 2011-11-28 @ 09:41 NZDT: Report abusive post
the country is full of complacent morons who love to complain but dont get of there arse to vote.... cant beleive where this country is headed, where just like the yanks, maybe worse because we think we are better than them....shame shame shame..... who can blame us for moving to aussie... the nz government is for the nz rich list, they dont care about the poor..... shame shame shame..... and the media should be held accountable.... they done this... i want to hear the tea tapes!
Yady said on 2011-11-28 @ 09:35 NZDT: Report abusive post
those who didn't vote should be ashamed of themselves.... this country is full of moaning couch potatoes..... just what national needed... shame shame shame....
cheekychick said on 2011-11-27 @ 10:03 NZDT: Report abusive post
Michelle Boag calling Winston names is disgusting and offensive Jan
troberts88 said on 2011-11-27 @ 10:00 NZDT: Report abusive post
Yay John!
cheekychick said on 2011-11-27 @ 09:28 NZDT: Report abusive post
Winston Peters is needed in Parliament to keep them honest. Janice