Smoke ’em if you got ’em. That’s the message from New Zealand’s incoming conservative coalition government which has vowed to scrap the nation’s smoking ban to fund tax cuts across the broader community and stem any possibility of starting a black market.
The legislation, introduced under the previous left-wing Jacinda Ardern-led government, would have banned cigarette sales next year to anyone born after 2008, as Breitbart News reported.
The proposed measures included reducing the number of authorized tobacco retailers by 90 percent and slashing the amount of nicotine allowed in smoking products.
The new Prime Minister Chris Luxon has argued a ban and sales restrictions would lead to a black market for tobacco and he would rather harness the taxation flow it provides through excise to benefit everyone while letting people make up their own minds about whether they should smoke or not.
“Concentrating the distribution of cigarettes in one store in one small town is going to be a massive magnet for crime,” Luxon told Radio New Zealand.
Luxon said his government would continue to lower smoking rates through education and other smoking policies.
The laws were due to be implemented from July 2024. But as part of its coalition agreement with New Zealand First, the inbound National-majority government agreed to repeal the amendments, including “removing requirements for de-nicotisation, removing the reduction in retail outlets and the generation ban”.
On Saturday, the new finance minister, Nicola Willis, promised the measures will be axed before March 2024, with the revenue from cigarette sales going towards the coalition’s broader tax cuts.
Public health experts have reacted with fury at the plan saying it could cost up to 5,000 lives a year, and be particularly detrimental to Māori, who have higher smoking rates.
“This is major loss for public health, and a huge win for the tobacco industry – whose profits will be boosted at the expense of Kiwi lives,” said Prof Lisa Te Morenga, the chair of non-government industry group Health Coalition Aotearoa.
AFP reports while the number of adults smoking in New Zealand is already relatively low at just eight percent, the previous Ardern government had envisioned a future where the country was completely smoke-free.
As well as the steadily increasing age limit, the new law would have slashed the number of retailers able to sell tobacco products to a maximum of just 600 nationwide, a massive drop from the current figure of 6,000.
Denmark and the United Kingdom are considering similar plans to eliminate smoking with a steadily increasing minimum age. The Danish government said its plan could only be implemented if changes were made to the European Union’s Tobacco Products Directive.
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