August 07, 2016
Bylaw business unusual for anti-smoking push
Maori public health service Hapai Te Hauora is welcoming Auckland Council’s consideration of a bylaw to ban smoking in some open spaces.
It comes after an internal analyst slammed the council for failing to develop Maori-specific smokefree initiatives.
A council committee wants the bylaw to cover the CBD, pavement dining, civic squares and beaches.
Hapai Te Hauora tobacco control advocate Zoe Hawke says that will be places with a high impact for tamariki.
"This is a natural progression in our journey to Smokefree 2025. We need some business, unusual things to get Maori and Pacific there. If we wrap a whole lot of strategies around our whanau including denormalising smoking in our communities visually, then we are going to be more likely to reach that goal," she says.
Zoe Hawke says for the bylaw to work there needs to be a major communications strategy around it, but the experience of a similar bylaw in Melbourne shows it can work.
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