Groundbreaking smoking ban reversed in New Zealand’s swing to the right
The New Zealand smoking ban, due to start in 2027, was part of a global wave of legislation aimed at curbing the harmful effects of nicotine. It provided the inspiration for a similar proposal in England to create the first “smoke-free generation” there. Currently, the legal smoking age in both countries is 18. Ireland and Wales have set similar goals to make their countries smoke-free within the decade. Hong Kong is considering imposing lifetime tobacco bans for future generations.
But the center-right National Party, which won the largest share of votes in the Oct. 14 election, needed the support of two other parties — the right-wing ACT and the populist New Zealand First — to form a government. The new government was officially sworn in Monday, more than six weeks after the election.
The National Party agreed to repeal the smoking laws as part of its coalition deal with New Zealand First. In its election manifesto, the populist party described nicotine as “generally as safe as caffeine” for adults — an argument that has been promulgated by Big Tobacco.
“This is major loss for public health, and a huge win for the tobacco industry — whose profits will be boosted at the expense of Kiwi lives,” Boyd Swinburn, a professor at the University of Auckland and co-chair of the nongovernmental organization Health Coalition Aotearoa, said.
The National Party has said it plans to use the revenue raised from increased tobacco sales to pay for its election promise to cut income taxes, after New Zealand First blocked a plan to allow foreign buyers back into the New Zealand housing market.
The previous Labour government had also overhauled tobacco laws by reducing the number of retailers authorized to sell tobacco in New Zealand from 6,000 to 600 and imposing stricter nicotine limits in smoked tobacco products.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon told Radio New Zealand on Monday that reducing the number of stores allowed to sell cigarettes could make them “a massive magnet for ram raids and crime” — and boost the black market for cigarettes.
ACT’s deputy leader Brooke van Velden last year called the new measures “nanny-state prohibition.”
A recent study showed the laws passed by Labour last year would have saved the health care system around $1.3 billion New Zealand dollars ($800,000) over the next two decades, if implemented as planned. Health experts expect the reversal of the laws to be especially harmful for New Zealand’s Indigenous Maori, who are more likely to smoke than the wider population, and suffer higher rates of tobacco-related illnesses as a result.
Richard Edwards, a professor of public health at the University of Otago in Wellington, described the new government’s move as “an act of idiocy” and “public health vandalism.”
“New Zealand First has railroaded this through, and Christopher Luxon and National have been too weak to stop them,” he said. “It’s all part of the coalition negotiations which happened behind closed doors, perhaps in a smoke-filled room.”
