Lifelong memories of a smoky car

Marama Fox and Cathy Cherrington at yesterday's presentation of a petition calling for a ban on smoking in cars with young passengers.

Maori Party co-leader Marama Fox will accept support for her battle to eliminate smoking in New Zealand by 2025 from wherever it comes, and she was delighted to accept a petition in Kaitaia yesterday calling for a ban on smoking in cars with passengers under the age of 18.

Ms Fox, herself a one-time smoker but a campaigner against tobacco for the past 20 years, said she had clear memories of feeling ill as a 3-year-old, travelling in a car while her father smoked.

Her arrival in Parliament last year had given her a stronger platform from which to fight tobacco, but she was frustrated by how slowly things were done.

The enforcement of plain packaging, for example, was on hold, thanks to a court case taken against the Australian government by Philip Morris, but the petition would perhaps "push the government along".

Progress was being made; there was a continuing downward trend in smoking rates, except among Maori women.

Women she had spoken to said they knew smoking was wrong, and bad for them, but it was one way they could relieve their stress. "What are we not doing to relieve their stress in some other way?" she asked.

Cancer Society Northland health promoter Jim Callaghan said all parents wanted the best for their children, and the petition would serve as the voice of parents in Te Tai Tokerau.

More than 2000 people, many of them in Te Hiku, signed the petition, calling on the government to offer a level of protection to their children.

"We know smoking kills 5000 people a year - that's almost the population of Kaitaia - and this is a simple way for the government to show that it is serious about protecting children," he said.

Yesterday, Mr Callaghan added, was the eve of the British government's passing of legislation prohibiting smoking in cars with passengers under the age of 18, and he was hopeful that the petition would prove to be the starting point for significant change.