Mana Party leader Hone Harawira has welcomed moves to impose new restrictions on tobacco in a bid to get the country back on track for the Smokefree 2025 deadline.

Associate Health Minister Ayesha Verrall is proposing to raise the age limit on buying tobacco product each year to create a smokefree generation, as well as other moves to make tobacco less available, less addictive and less appealing.

Mr Harawira, who as an MP drove the Māori Affairs select committee inquiry into the tobacco industry which led to the Smokefree 2025 target, says it’s important the new strategy increases the input of Māori at the governance level and also boosts spending on tobacco control and smoking cessation.

"Government is taking $2 billion a year in tobacco tax and only spending about 3 percent a year of that on tobacco control. The ones most addicted to tobacco are not Māori and not Pasifika. Government is addicted to the money from tobacco taxes. It is unwilling to actually help us stop smoking because if you stop smoking, that $2b in tax income the government doesn't receive," Mr Harawira says.

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