November 27, 2023
Smokefree Aotearoa roll back lethal for Māori
A Māori health researcher says the roll back of sound, evidence-based tobacco control measures will mean an extra 5000 to 8000 people, a large proportion of them Māori, will died by 2040 of cancer, heart disease, cot death, emphysema and other conditions caused by smoking.
The new coalition says it will repeal last year’s Smokefree Environments and Regulated Products (Smoked Tobacco) Amendment Bill which prevents people born after 2008 from buying smoked tobacco, restricts the number of retail outlets and cuts the amount of nicotine allowed in cigarettes.
Lisa Te Morenga from Massey University says Maori in the sector are shaking with rage at the scrapping of the Smokefee Aotearoa 2025 agenda – especially when the pressure needs to be going on.
“All the work we’ve been putting in on smokefree, tobacco control, over the years has had an effect but unfortunately for our Maori whanau we’ve still got rates twice as high as amongst non-Maori whanau so we haven’t been doing quite as good a job at supporting our families to break this addiction to this awful, awful drug,” she says.
Dr Te Morenga says it’s only in recent times that there has been the resourcing to develop Maori-centred programmes for smoking cession, including whole of whanau approaches.