Media statement

For immediate release

Friday, 4 July 2003

Dunne demands honesty on smoking from Chadwick

United Future leader, Peter Dunne, today called on Labour's Rotorua MP, Steve Chadwick, to come clean with the public about Labour's real objective in promoting anti-smoking legislation.

"Mrs Chadwick has privately told journalists that her private Member's Bill that seeks to ban smoking in bars, restaurants and clubs is only the first step," said Mr Dunne.

"Labour's real goal is the banning of all smoking everywhere. While that may please the fanatical anti-smoking brigade, I do not believe it is the role of the State to tell people what they can and can't do in their own homes.

"It is precisely the sort of extremism that makes people wary of the more left-wing elements of Labour's social agenda, particularly when these are promoted in co-operation with the dope-smoking Greens, and why they look to United Future to tone things down and bring back some common-sense.

"Mrs Chadwick is also being misleading when she says my amendments to her Bill, which seek to control second-hand smoke by the proper use of ventilation systems, won't work.

"What she really means is that my amendments cut across the Labour Party's secret agenda to ban smoking altogether.

"Despite expert advice to the select committee to the contrary, Mrs Chadwick continues to peddle the false alarmist line that such systems would need to have the force of a tornado.

"This is rubbish and she knows it. When you have to bolster your argument with falsehoods, it's a clear sign that your argument is weak in the first place," said Mr Dunne.

ends

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