February 12, 2014
Peters huffing over smoke packaging
New Zealand First leader Winston Peters isn’t backing a push to plain packaging for tobacco.
The Smoke-free Environments (Tobacco Plain Packaging) Amendment Bill had its first reading yesterday, although the Government says it won’t pass the bill until it knows the outcome of a legal challenge to similar legislation over the Tasman.
Associate Health Minister Tariana Turia says the move is needed to address the health problems caused by tobacco, especially for Maori and Pasifika people.
Mr Peters, a long time smoker, says it seems odd to impose such restrictions on a legal product.
"If you want to know what’s killing more people in this country, and Maori and Pacific Islanders, it is the wrong diet and not cigarettes. So why don’t you focus on that for a change, rather than coming round and preaching to a whole lot of people who know that it’s not good for them and then to be told ‘we’re going to price it out of your existence because we personally don’t like it,’" he says.
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