New Zealand’s new government says it will abolish smoking ban

New Zealand’s new right-wing government has said it will repeal a law that would have gradually banned all cigarette sales in the country over decades.

The law, passed by a previous government led by Jacinda Ardern, a prime minister who became an international liberal icon, came into force this year and was celebrated as a potential model that other countries could one day follow. It is said to have introduced gradual changes to cigarette sales and retail licensing over a number of years, until eventually tobacco could no longer be legally sold in New Zealand.

On January 1, 2027, the law would have made it illegal to sell tobacco products such as cigarettes to anyone born on or after January 1, 2009. according to the government. The law would then have gradually raised the smoking age year by year, until it covered the entire population.

But last week, in published agreements between the three coalition partners, the new government said it would repeal the law, without explaining why.

New Finance Minister Nicola Willis later told Radio New Zealand that the Ardern government’s plans to restrict tobacco sales and reduce the amount of nicotine in cigarettes could have created a “huge black market”.

“So absolutely we still want fewer people to smoke, but we don’t think the outgoing government’s policies are the best way to achieve that.” Ms Willis told the public broadcaster. About 8 percent of New Zealanders smoked daily since November 2022, according to the former government.

The government, New Zealand’s most right-wing in a generation, is under pressure to make good on campaign promises to deliver tax cuts it once planned to pay for through a tax on foreign buyers buying New Zealand property . who has since left it. Analysts have been asking questions how it would offset lost revenues from the proposed tax cuts.

Mrs. Willis told current affairs program Newshub Nation last week that scrapping the smoking ban would allow the country to continue collecting tax revenue from tobacco products, which in turn would help pay for other tax cuts.

Health care advocates and policy experts have said repealing the law would be shortsighted, in part because preventing new generations of young people from taking up smoking would save the government money in the long run.

“I think it’s a step backwards,” Robin Gauld, a health policy expert at the University of Otago in New Zealand, said on Tuesday. “No one really wants this except the industry and the people involved in selling tobacco.”

Ayesha Verrall, an infectious disease doctor and Labor Party politician who served as Minister of Health, criticized the plan to repeal the smoking ban.

“It means that ultimately lives will be lost, and even more health care costs will be incurred over time,” said Dr. Verrall this weekend.

A pack of cigarettes sells in New Zealand for about 35 New Zealand dollars, or $21, and sales tax and excise duties account for about 70 percent of the price. That high figure has been linked to an increase in reported retail crime, with convenience stores selling tobacco products being targeted by thieves.

One of the parties in the new governing coalition, New Zealand First, campaigned on repealing the law and scrapping a planned tobacco tax increase in 2024, among other tobacco-related issues.

Ms Willis, a member of the centre-right National Party, the coalition’s largest member, told Newshub Nation that the two smaller parties – New Zealand First and ACT – were “pushing” for a series of tobacco restrictions to be reversed.

“We have agreed to this in these coalition agreements,” she said.

Shane Reti, the new health minister, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Tuesday. Nor do representatives of New Zealand First or ACT.