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Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters says the target of zero smoking by 2025 was a lie.
The new Government is under fire for its plans to scrap measures aimed at helping meet the Aotearoa Smokefree 2025 target.
The New Zealand First leader says it was a phony target.
“It never was zero. It was to get to 5 percent and then say it’s zero so straight away when I hear these medical people and others make this statement about genocide and how awful it is, I say to myself why did you accept the lie that the target was never zero smoking? It was down to 5 percent,” he says.
Mr Peter says Treasury projections show billions of dollars in continuing excise revenue from tobacco past 2025, which shows government was never serious about the smokefree target.
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