November 27, 2023
Smokefree goals gone in a puff
Opposition leader Chris Hipkins says the new Government is deregulating the tobacco industry.
The coalition has announced it will roll back laws aimed at making Aotearoa Smokefree 2025, including restricting the number of retailers, reducing nicotine in cigarettes and stopping the next generation buying smoking tobacco.
Its policy schedule shows National agreed to support a New Zealand First proposal to repeal recent amendments to the Smokefree Environments and Regulated Products Act 1990 almost immediately.
“Christopher Luxon and the National Party were attacking us for being too slow to do more around vaping. Now they seem to be dialing the clock backwards at a very rapid rate, deregulating more the vaping industry and committing to deregulating the tobacco industry more than it has been as well. “That’s not putting the health and welfare of of New Zealanders at the front and centre of the Government’s programme,” Mr Hipkins says.
NZ First wants to ban disposable vaping products and increase penalties for illegal sales to those under 18.