New Zealand scraps world’s first smoking ban to help fund tax cuts
New Zealand’s new government has dismantled the world’s first plans to ban future generations from smoking.
The plans were initially introduced by then Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern in 2022, and once implemented in July 2024, would have banned anyone born after January 2009 from buying cigarettes.
The legislation would also have reduced the amount of nicotine in tobacco products while increasing its price and reducing the number of tobacco shops in the country from 6,000 to 600.
The new National-led coalition government announced they would withdraw the legislation before the new Prime Minister, Christopher Luxon, was sworn in.
Incoming finance minister Nicola Willis said revenue from tobacco sales would fund the Coalition’s tax cuts.
New Zealand’s incoming Conservative government has dismantled the world’s first plans to ban future generations of New Zealanders from buying cigarettes (stock image)
Ms Willis said reducing the number of tobacconists and slowly shrinking their customer base would have led to a loss of around $1 billion in government revenue.
“Coming back to those additional revenue streams and other areas of savings that will help us fund the tax cut, we must remember that the changes to smoke-free legislation had a significant impact on the government’s bottom line,” she told Newshub Nation. .
Mr Luxon said the legislation would have encouraged black market tobacco shows in an attempt to recoup lost sales.
“Concentrating the distribution of cigarettes in one store in one small town will be a huge magnet for crime,” he told Radio New Zealand.
He continued by saying that his government will strive to reduce the number of smokers in the country without turning citizens into criminals.
The national government, led by Christopher Luxon (pictured), will instead use the approximately $1 billion in revenue from smoking-related purchases to finance tax cuts
Smoking, drinking and unhealthy eating are responsible for around a third of all unavoidable deaths in the country, with the greatest impact on the indigenous Maori population.
Health Coalition Aotearoa (HCA) co-chair Professor Lisa Te Morenga said the withdrawal of the smoking ban was an “insult” to the tangata Whenua (people of the land) by the newly formed coalition government.
Professor Te Morenga noted that the new government had also pledged to dismantle Te Aka Whai Ora (the Maori Health Authority) after being sworn in.
‘Tending the tide of harmful products that are deeply ingrained in society cannot be done by individuals, or even by communities. It requires good – and courageous – policy at population level,” says Professor Te Morenga.
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced similar plans last month to gradually increase the age at which people can smoke.
His plans would see the legal age for purchasing tobacco rise every year from 2009, meaning a 14-year-old today would never be legally sold a cigarette under proposed legislation for England.