New Zealand’s vaunted laws aimed at making the country smoke-free will be repealed by its new center-right government.
Legislation banning tobacco sales to people born after 2008 will be dumped by the new administration, according to coalition agreements released Friday in Wellington. The new government, which comprises the National, ACT and New Zealand First parties, will also stop a plan to reduce in the number of retail outlets allowed to sell cigarettes.
“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 Boyd Swindon, co-chair of the Health Coalition Aotearoa. Recent research showed the smoke-free regulations would save NZ$1.3 billion ($790 million) in health system costs over the next 20 years if fully implemented, and reduce all-cause mortality rates by 22% for women and 9% for men, he said.
The previous Labour-led government introduced amendments that from 2027 would progressively lift the smoking age from 18, effectively banning the sale of tobacco to anyone born after 2008. It also legislated to reduce the number of shops that can sell tobacco from 2024, and planned to allow only smoked tobacco products containing very low levels of nicotine to be sold from 2025.
Nations including Malaysia and Singapore considered implementing similar laws.
The new, National-led government said it will repeal those amendments by March next year, change vaping product requirements and apply tax to smoked products only. The policy was advocated by the nationalist New Zealand First party, which says it supports “age-appropriate access to nicotine, which in adults is generally as safe as caffeine is.”
Data released in late 2022 showed New Zealand’s smoking rate fell to 8% of adults smoking daily in the year through July 2022, down from 9.4% a year earlier.
