2023-11-27 09:11:02
New Zealand’s new conservative government confirmed on Monday its intention to abandon pioneering measures adopted to combat smoking. A backpedal denounced by an NGO as a “huge victory for the tobacco industry”.
Former Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern had Parliament vote on a “generational smoking ban” banning the sale of cigarettes to anyone born after 2008.
A ban welcomed by experts
This policy was welcomed by public health experts and tobacco control advocates. Almost identical measures were recently announced in the United Kingdom.
But new Prime Minister Christopher Luxon, who took office on Monday, confirmed New Zealand would repeal the laws before they come into force, citing fears of a vast black market in tobacco sales.
Christopher Luxon admitted that tax revenues from ongoing cigarette sales would also generate welcome revenue for the government, but stressed that this was not “no motivation to do it”.
A “major loss” for public health
The anti-smoking group Health Coalition Aotearoa – the Maori name for New Zealand – said abandoning the policy was an insult to the country.
“This is a major loss for public health and a huge victory for the tobacco industry, whose profits will be increased at the expense of the lives of New Zealanders,” the association said in a statement.
The fear of a black market
Christopher Luxon defended the decision Monday, saying the cigarette ban would create “an opportunity for the emergence of a black market, which would be largely untaxed”.
The law was designed to almost immediately reduce the number of people using tobacco, in a country where the number of adult smokers is already relatively low.
The law provided for a gradual increase in the minimum age for purchasing tobacco products and would have drastically reduced the number of businesses authorized to sell tobacco to a maximum of 600 nationwide.
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