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300 smokers call it quits after tobacco tax hike

Jan 1st, 2017
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Smoking cigarettes and tobacco just got a lot more expensive with a 10% tax increase coming into force this morning.

https://www.maoritelevision.com/news/regional/300-smokers-call-it-quits-after-tobacco-tax-hike

That means, the average cost for a packet of cigarettes is around NZ$25. (HK$ 134.5)

While some Smokefree agencies are supportive they say government measures don’t go far enough.

Andrew Slater, CEO Quitline says, “So, so far today we’ve had over 100 people call us by lunchtime looking to enrol and get support for quitting smoking. We’ll expect to see that sort of hit around 300 people by the end of today.” The Māori tobacco advocacy service says while the law change seems unfair to Māori families it is for their benefit. Zoe Hawke, General Manager – Tobacco Advocacy Service, Hāpai Te Hauora says, “Having your health will be more financially beneficial in the end. You don’t want to be mauiui, you don’t want to end up in hospital with your whanau suffering and being sad that you’re sick.” But Hāpai Te Hauora claims the tax increase doesn’t go far enough. They’re pushing for a 20 percent increase.

Hawke says, “When it’s 20 percent, it may be at odd times during the year so people aren’t preparing for it then the shock of it helps people then to start planning for being smokefree.” But, the rising cost of tobacco isn’t the key reason why many are opting to quit the habit. Slater says, “What we know from our research over the last 12 months is around 45% of people actually quit smoking for their health followed by family and cost was the third reason.” Berdie Milner, Quitline Advisor says, “It deteriorates your health as well as the health of your family. It’s time to fix it and we can help you.”

The 10 percent tax increase will apply each year until 2020 in order to fulfil the government’s goal of a smokefree New Zealand.

Hāpai Te Hauora calls for stronger tobacco control in NZ

Dec 16th, 2016
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Smokefree 2025 is the Governments goal to make New Zealand essentially smokefree by 2025. By 2018 the daily smoking will need to fall to 10% and Māori and Pacific adult daily smoking rates to have fallen to 19% and 11% respectively. This means, by 2018 we are aiming for an estimated 58,000 smokers to have quit daily smoking, 27,000 will be Māori and 8,000 Pacific.

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO1612/S00225/hapai-te-hauora-calls-for-stronger-tobacco-control-in-nz.htm

The NZ Health Survey, annual update of key results report was released today by the Ministry of Health and Hāpai Te Hauora find there is both urgent and wide-ranging tobacco control work to be done.

Hāpai Te Hauora CEO Lance Norman says “the smoking rate is decreasing too slowly.”

Norman raised in an earlier media release the disparities for Māori woman and Māori men and Pacific population groups. Now more than ever we need improved collaboration with Māori providers and communities. Both international and national experience shows that stop smoking services alone will not get all population groups to 2025.

The report repeats the fact that smoking continues as a leading risk factor for poor health that is completely preventable. Sadly, smoking continues as the main cause of lung cancer and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and a major cause of heart disease, heart attacks, stroke and many other cancers causing early death and disease.

Hāpai encourages consideration of the social and economic complexities of health care for Māori and Pacific when planning for action, and supports regular and ongoing mass media campaigns, e-cigarette availability, coupled with a reduction in tobacco outlet accessibility.

Lance Norman applauds the authors of the report for providing more information on smoking amongst Māori that has long been discussed in communities and now evidenced and reported around systemic racism and interpersonal racism embedded in the historical context of colonization.

The current smoking rate (adults who smoke at least monthly) has fallen from 20% in 2006/07 to 16% in 2015/16, however that is only a reduction of 1% from last year’s prevalence at 17%.

The report shows that current smoking for Māori woman is 40% compared to 15% for European/Other woman. After adjusting for age, Māori woman were 3.5 times as likely to be current smokers compared to non-Māori.

The most substantial reduction in current smoking rates since 2006/2007 was for youth (those aged 15–17 years), for whom the rate has more than halved from 16% in 2006/07 to 6% in 2015/2016 however this is no change from last year when current smoking for this group was also at 6%.

Māori have the highest current smoking rate of 38.6%, Pacific at 25.5% compared to European at 14.5%. Although the Māori current smoking rate has not improved since last year, the average number of cigarettes smoked per day by Māori daily smokers has declined over the period 2006/07 to 2014/15.

Smoking by Māori men is reported at 37.3% an increase from the previous year’s 34.0%. Although we are not yet clear on how significant the upward movement for Māori men is, the change indicates a need for closer monitoring and further investigation. Māori women smoking at 39.7% shows no significant change.

Smoking is strongly linked to socioeconomic deprivation and Hapai Te Hauora like many other health providers understand the need to address the social determinants of health such as education, socio economic status, housing, internet access, access to a vehicle. Adults living in the most deprived areas are 3.1 times as likely to smoke as those living in the least deprived areas, after adjusting for age, sex and ethnic differences.

Hāpai Te Hauora the voice of Tobacco Control Advocacy encourages people to look closely at the recent New Zealand Health survey results to gain a full picture of the health of New Zealanders and explanations for persistent and unacceptable high rates of smoking amongst Māori.

At the very least it is imperative that New Zealanders know and understand that we have a Smokefree 2025 goal.

Kiwi managed funds flock to discuss going tobacco free, campaigner says

Nov 16th, 2016
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http://www.sharechat.co.nz/article/c9bb7fb4/kiwi-managed-funds-flock-to-discuss-going-tobacco-free-campaigner-says.html

Bronwyn King, the Australian doctor leading a global push to encourage fund managers to exclude tobacco stocks, said she’s had approaches from six major funds in New Zealand interested in making the shift.

The move follows investor uproar earlier this year after media investigations found New Zealanders had unknowingly invested $152 million in arms manufacturers and big tobacco companies through their KiwiSaver funds, she said.

King is chief executive of Tobacco Free Portfolios and a practising radiation oncologist in Melbourne. She has already persuaded 35 Australian superannuation funds controlling nearly half of the total funds under management in that country to shun tobacco, and doesn’t know the numbers of funds that exclude tobacco in New Zealand though ANZ is a recent convert and the New Zealand Superannuation Fund was the first sovereign wealth fund in the world to do so.

King’s own epiphany came in 2010 when she and her Kiwi husband wanted to buy a house and she went to discuss her savings in the superannuation fund Health Super with a consultant. As she left, she asked whether she was meant to specify how she wanted her money invested in Health Super. The consultant replied she didn’t need to worry because she was in the default option where the decisions were made for her.

King then asked what the options were and was told there was a “greenie option” involving no investment in mining, alcohol, or tobacco.

“It was a big shock knowing I was investing in tobacco companies that were making products that killed my patients,” she told a Responsible Investment Conference in Auckland yesterday.

It turned out Health Super’s default option included investing in four of the big tobacco companies, and King shared that news with other staff members at Peter Mac, a dedicated cancer hospital. She also raised it with the chief executive and then with the super fund which had merged with Sydney-based First State Super. After a lot of discussion, it became the first Australian superannuation fund to renounce tobacco investments in 2012.

One of the biggest successes in King’s campaign came this year when AXA, the world’s second-biggest insurer, said it would sell 200 million euro of tobacco stocks and run down 1.6 billion euro of tobacco corporate bonds. King says she’s currently working with more than 100 financial institutions with four more likely to announce a similar move soon.

The tide has turned in public sentiment on the issue and fund managers who manage investors’ money are slowly waking up to that fact, she said.

The pitch that has worked best has been highlighting the tobacco industry’s exploitation of young people with an estimated 100,000 children starting smoking each day.

Not many people are aware that according to the International Labour Organisation up to 60 percent of the workforce in tobacco farming are aged under 16, she said. The average age at which Australian smokers take up the habit is 15 years and nine months – the oldest in the world. The average in the UK is just 11 years.

The percentage of boys that smoke between 13 and 16 years old is 3.7 percent in New Zealand but is much higher in emerging countries such as Indonesia where the figure is 41 percent and 52.1 percent in Papua New Guinea.

“This is not about adults making an informed choice but about children who start smoking when they’re too young to be aware of the risks,” she said.

One conference attendee said one of the problems with divestment was that tobacco stocks had done so well for investors over the years. King said that was the most difficult thing though there were signs those profits could change in the next 10 years.

“The industry has done well in the past 10 years because it has gone into the developing world before these regulations were crafted. It’s made the most of these very poor populations with large user bases and very poor levels of awareness and very poor regulatory frameworks, an industry that continues to get away with 60 percent of its workforce being child labour, externalising costs and internalising profits and not being held to account for all of these deaths is extraordinary.”

King said there’s three strong reasons behind going tobacco free: tobacco is a unique product in that it can’t be used safely with two out of three smokers dying from its use; the UN Tobacco Treaty signed by 180 countries including New Zealand requires governments and related bodies not to invest in the industry and take other measures such as plain packaging; and engagement with the industry to change its behaviour is futile.

There’s a regulatory risk for fund managers with three countries having introduced plain packaging legislation and another 20 will have by next year, King said. New Zealand has signed off on it but not yet set a date for implementation.

There’s also a litigation risk with the Quebec state government succeeding last year in a landmark class action suit against three big tobacco companies where the judge awarded C$15.6 billion in compensation to one million smokers for the health effects of the products. It is being appealed by the tobacco companies.

King said the case was one the rest of the world should watch with interest.

“If that precedent is set I can’t believe the people of New Zealand would be happy to continue to pick up the costs of the tobacco industry, it doesn’t make any sense. The truth is if we all sued at the same time the tobacco industry couldn’t even pay its own costs for one year.”

SMOKEFREE 2025 AOTEAROA/NEW ZEALAND

Nov 11th, 2016
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New Zealand’s Smokefree 2025 goal is rooted in long-standing concerns among Mäori (the indigenous peoples of New Zealand) communities and leaders about the high rate of smoking related harms among Mäori.

In 2006 a leading Mäori Party Member of Parliament (MP), Hone Harawira, introduced a private member’s bill to make it illegal to produce or sell tobacco in Aotearoa (the Mäori name for New Zealand).

The bill was not successful.

However, it contributed to a change in focus of the aims for Mäori in tobacco control, from “auahi kore” (smoke-free), to “tupeka kore” (tobacco-free), led by another Mäori advocate, Shane Bradbrook.

The immediate trigger for New Zealand’s goal was the 2010 Mäori Affairs Select Committee (MASC) inquiry into the tobacco industry in Aotearoa and the consequences of tobacco use for Mäori. The inquiry drew on input from multiple stakeholders, including Mäori communities, wh nau (extended family), hapü (sub-tribe), and iwi (tribes), researchers and clinicians.

The first of the MASC’s 42 recommendations was endorsed by the government in March 2011 in setting a goal of “reducing smoking prevalence and tobacco availability to minimal levels, thereby making New Zealand essentially a smoke-free nation by 2025.” In doing so it became the first government in the world to set a specific ‘endgame’ goal for the use of smoked tobacco products. This goal goes well beyond the more incremental target of the World Health Organization (WHO): a 30-percent reduction in  smoking prevalence, from 22 percent in 2010 to 15 percent in 2025.

New Zealand’s Smokefree 2025 goal has had a highly positive impact. It has created a clarity of purpose and clear timeline that has galvanised the tobacco control sector, media and the public. It has stimulated local Smokefree coalitions, and facilitated the discussion of radical interventions such as mandated very low nicotine cigarettes or radical reductions in supply of tobacco.

The goal has overwhelming public support and has ensured that tobacco control remains strongly on the political and policy agenda.

Since the adoption of the goal, some key interventions have been introduced, including:

• Annual, above-inflation, tobacco excise tax increases since 2010
• Introduction of smoke-free prisons in 2011
• Removal of point-of-sale tobacco displays in shops in 2012, and
• Substantial reductions in duty-free allowances for tobacco in 2014.

In September 2016 the bill to introduce standardised packaging (also known as plain packaging) was passed by Parliament; implementation will occur in the next 18 months. The Ministry of Health is currently consulting on permitting the sale of nicotine containing e-cigarettes and e-liquids.

There are however growing concerns about whether the Smokefree 2025 goal will be achieved. The goal is often interpreted as reaching a smoking prevalence of less than 5 percent.

Smoking prevalence in 2014-15 in the New Zealand Health Survey was 17 percent. Modelling studies suggest the government’s midpoint target of 10 percent by 2018, and the 5-percent target, are unlikely to be met on current trends. Furthermore, current smoking prevalence of 38 percent for Mäori and 25 percent for Pacific peoples are unacceptably high. Studies suggest that the 5- percent figure for Mäori will not be achieved until beyond 2060.

One of the key MASC recommendations was for the government to establish a tobacco control strategy and action plan with a strong emphasis on Mäorifocused outcomes.

No such plan has been developed. It is unclear how the government intends to achieve the Smokefree 2025 goal, and what measures will be taken to reduce the unacceptably high level of smoking among Mäori and Pacific peoples.

Furthermore, although the government has implemented some positive measures since 2011, many more, including several key recommendations in the MASC Inquiry report, remain unaddressed.

For example, the government Smokefree 2025 goal included the aim of reducing tobacco availability to minimal levels by 2025, and also a commitment to investigate options for measures to reduce tobacco supply. However, the ministry of health in a report to the MASC described these measures as ‘low priority’, and there is no
evidence of any investigation or implementation of supply-side measures, other than the restriction on duty-free sales introduced in 2014.

Adoption of the Smokefree 2025 goal put New Zealand at the forefront of tobacco control internationally. However, the goal will not be reached without bold and determined political leadership.

Interventions cannot be cherrypicked according to what is politically pragmatic.

Achievement of the goal will require the government to develop a strategy and introduce a comprehensive range of effective interventions, developed in partnership with Mäori and Pacific communities and leaders, building on the energy, commitment and innovation to achieve Smokefree 2025 that is being shown by local coalitions across New Zealand.

With such a robust, evidencebased and comprehensive approach, the Smokefree 2025 goal can and should be achieved.

Professor Richard Edwards , Co-Head of Department, Department of Public Health, University of Otago, Wellington,

Shayne Nahu, Health Promotion and Campaigns Manager, Cancer Society of New Zealand,

Boyd Broughton, Programme Manager, Action on Smoking and Health,

Zoe Hawke, General Manager Tobacco Control Advocacy, Häpai

Te Hauora Mäori Public Health,

Louisa Ryan, Pacific Health Manager, Heart Foundation.

Dumping tobacco industry investments

Sep 13th, 2016
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http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO1609/S00155/dumping-tobacco-industry-investments.htm

Hapai Te Hauora, the voice of Tobacco Control in New Zealand are pleased with the investment dump of at least $109 million in controversial tobacco industry and weapons investments following a Herald investigation into responsible investment policies. The Insights series Dirty Secrets of Your KiwiSaver sparked a public outcry and intensified debate after the story broke a few weeks ago.

Hapai CEO, Lance Norman says this is a powerful example of direct public response to slash any association with the tobacco industry. It highlights the significance of responsible investing by kiwi’s and the need to maintain a strong vigilant hand in all our public or private dealings with the tobacco industry. The New Zealand public have spoken through action to refuse investments with tobacco industry.

Zoe Hawke who leads the National Tobacco Control Advocacy services says, “We don’t want their (tobacco industry) money or their products, it is clear, this is a solid public statement against firms making tobacco or guilty of gross human rights abuses.”

New Zealand have a goal of becoming Smokefree by 2025 with international and local evidence showing that the majority of smokers regret ever smoking or wish to stop smoking.

Mr. Norman says, “It is important to ensure our communities, iwi, whanau and tamariki have zero exposure to the harms of tobacco industry products and other industries that contribute to the detriment of human kind.

The Insights series Dirty Secrets of Your KiwiSaver found providers managing the retirement savings accounts for more than 2 million New Zealanders had made $153 million of investments in companies blacklisted for ethical reasons by the government-run New Zealand Superannuation Fund.

Hapai are leaders in Public Health and Tobacco Control Advocacy and deliver national and local services. Hapai provide a strategic focus that is underpinned by evidence based research for the advancement of health and wellbeing for communities. The mission of Hapai is to increase opportunities for Maori and all communities to enjoy good health and to be sustained by healthy environments.

Legalising electronic cigarettes could save thousands of NZ smokers’ lives

Sep 12th, 2016
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http://www.nzherald.co.nz/lifestyle/news/article.cfm?c_id=6&objectid=11707688

Thousands of New Zealand smokers’ lives could be saved by legalising domestic sales of electronic cigarettes containing nicotine, a leading vendor says.

The claim by Cosmic, which is selling the devices despite the current legal ban, comes as submissions close today on a legalisation plan and has some backing from public health experts, both here and overseas.

Public Health England, which has helped to revolutionise official views on e-cigarettes in New Zealand, has said the nicotine delivery systems can help smokers quit, and they carry only a small fraction of the risk of smoking tobacco.

Auckland University’s Professor Chris Bullen, who led the world’s first high-quality trial to compare the quit-smoking rates of e-cigarettes and nicotine patches, said: “I don’t think they are a magic bullet.

They’re not the sole thing that’s going to get us there [to the Smokefree 2025 goal], but I think they will help some population groups where we haven’t seen a breakthrough before.

“There could be some real potential for Maori smokers.”

His group’s trial found in 2013 that nicotine e-cigarettes were as good as patches, but he said the e-cigarettes sold today were superior to those in the trial, which delivered less nicotine than a cigarette.

“Experienced users can [now] get nicotine equivalent to smoking a standard cigarette.”

Around 546,000 Kiwis smoke daily, 15 per cent of the adult population. Every day on average, at least 13 people die from a smoking-related disease, around 5000 people a year. Half of smokers die from a smoking-related illness and on average their deaths will be 14 years earlier than if they didn’t smoke.

Many smokers and e-cigarette users will be carefully watching the Health Ministry’s response to submissions on its proposal to legalise and regulate e-cigarettes. The ministry said it has received more than 100 submissions. It will advise the Government by the end of the year on proposed changes to regulations under the Smokefree Environments Act.

A group of Otago University researchers are pushing for dairies, supermarkets and petrol stations to be prevented from selling e-cigarettes and liquid nicotine, saying instead that the permitted vendors should be limited to pharmacies or licensed “vape” shops.

Users “vape” on an e-cigarette, inhaling its nicotine-containing vapour, in the way that smokers inhale the smoke of a tobacco cigarette, which contains nicotine plus many cancer-causing chemicals.

Cosmic, which sells from seven retail stores nationally and an online business, said it had gained knowledge of e-cigarettes from the tens of thousands of customers who had bought its devices.

“There is no question these new devices represent the current best option to help smokers of traditional cigarettes to cut back or even stop altogether,” said the chain’s owner, Mark Carswell. “This is partly because they provide an ‘oral fix’ that nicotine patches don’t.”

In England, e-cigarettes are the leading form of quit-smoking aid, used by 35 per cent of smokers trying to quit, compared with the 27 per cent who use NRT.

Some researchers argue that e-cigarettes risk providing a “gateway” into smoking for youth, but Bullen said there was no evidence of this.

He and colleagues on the National Smokefree Working Group have recommended that only vape shops with staff trained to provide quit-smoking support, pharmacies and online stores be permitted to sell e-cigarettes at first.

Bullen favours later allowing supermarkets – but not dairies or petrol stations – to join in “if there is no evidence of youth uptake or other harms”.

His group is starting a new trial which will compare the quit-smoking rates of three groups of smokers: one using just a daily nicotine patch, another using that plus a nicotine e-cigarette, and the third using patches plus a nicotine-free e-cigarette. All participants will receive standard telephone-based behavioural support.

E-cigarettes now

• A legal grey area
• It’s unlawful to sell the nicotine or the devices containing it locally
• They can be legally imported via internet for personal use
• Health Ministry takes no enforcement action

Health Ministry proposal
• Local sales permitted
• R-18
• Advertising restricted
• Vaping banned in smokefree areas, such as in bars and other workplaces.

NZ Plain tobacco packaging bill passes third reading

Sep 11th, 2016
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http://www.stuff.co.nz/timaru-herald/news/84079801/plain-tobacco-packaging-bill-passes-third-reading

Timaru North Street Dairy owner Jay Tailor does not think the Smoke-free Environments (Tobacco Plain Packaging) Amendment Bill will make a positive long term impact on smokers.

Plain tobacco product packaging will not help a Timaru smoker who spends $70 every five days on his habit quit, he says.

The Smoke-free Environments (Tobacco Plain Packaging) Amendment Bill passed its third and final reading in Parliament on Thursday to address the 4500 to 5000 premature deaths caused by smoking every year in New Zealand.

To prevent potential young smokers from starting through the attraction to branding and bright coloured labelling, it is hoped the plain standardised packaging, to be implemented by the end of next year, will deter them.

Though the planned plain packaging had not been finalised, it was likely to follow the Australian design of green-brown with 75 per cent of the front emblazoned with health warnings and the brand name in small plain font.

Jamie Robinson, a 28-year-old freezing worker, has smoked for 17 years. Robinson has used gum, patches and pills to give up smoking but still can’t kick the addiction.

He spends $70 on 50 grams of tobacco, filters and rolling papers which lasts him about five days.

He can recall the same amount of tobacco 10 years ago was about $35. His wages have not increased at the same rate.

“I get agitated if I run out. I’m not very fit … I cough a lot and get out of breath.”

Robinson’s late brother introduced him to his first cigarette at the age of 11.

He did not think packaging would make a difference to his habit or to young people as peer pressure to smoke was stronger.

“It’s not socially acceptable for adults to smoke anymore but kids don’t think ahead.”

Murray’s Barber Shop and Beauty Salon owner Geoff Gibson said he would rather see someone smoking while driving than drinking a bottle of liquor while driving.

He did not agree with the Government changing the packaging of “a legal product’ such as cigarettes when labelling on alcohol was remaining.

“The Government does not want to touch liquor and that causes social issues.”

Heather Sutcliffe has been the owner/operator of the Morgans Rd Four Square for 13 years. In that time, measures to curb smoking, such as graphic health warnings introduced in 2008 and hiding tobacco products in cabinets in 2012, had not stopped her regular smoking customers – or prevented new ones starting. She did not expect the new packaging to make an impact either.

“[Smokers are] addicted and try to stop but can’t manage it.”

At a cost of $25 on average for a packet of 20 cigarettes, people were still buying them, she said.

“We have parents come in with their kids and the kids are not allowed to have anything, but [the parents] still buy smokes. It puts families into hardship.”

Mountain View Dairy owner Kirtesh Shah did not think the bill would make a difference.

“People smoke anyway.”

And North Street Dairy owner Jay Tailor predicted once the bill was implemented, it may slow sales for the first six months but then it would return to pre-bill numbers.

A 24-year-old Timaru mother of two, who did not want her name to be published, admits she was attracted to smoking by the packaging at the age of 14.

“I used to buy a packet because of the colour [of the packaging] and buy a lighter the same colour to match it.”

She still smokes but said her children did not miss out on anything because what she spent would be money she spent on herself anyway.

“I buy smokes instead of getting my hair done.”

South Canterbury District Health Board smokefree facilitator Carmen Chamberlain said Australia had found the introduction, in 2012, of plain packaging, larger health warnings and new warnings, had reduced smoking prevalence beyond the pre-existing downward trend.

“It is estimated that plain packaging would have a similar overall effect as a five per cent price increase from a tobacco excise tax rise, without imposing an extra financial burden on low-income smokers,” she said.

“Overall, new evidence suggests that plain packaging will not only deter smoking initiation (its primary objective), but also stimulate cessation among smokers.

“Tobacco is a highly addictive product known to kill two out of three long-term users, and we welcome any steps that will support smokers to become smokefree.”

For face to face support to quit contact 0800 111 880 or check out the Facebook page Kick Ash South Canterbury.

Tobacco giant warns of plain packet ‘black market’

Sep 10th, 2016
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New Zealand adopting plain packaging on cigarettes will fail to deter smokers, a global tobacco company has said.

http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/313004/tobacco-giant-warns-of-plain-packet-‘black-market’

A bill which will mean cigarettes can only be sold in bland brown or green packaging passed its final reading in Parliament this week.

The bill means mandatory health warnings will cover at least three quarters of the packet and tobacco company logos will be removed.

It’s taken three years for the legislation to pass after tobacco companies tried to sue the Australian government.

That legal battle failed last year, and even though the law was still facing challenges, such as by the World Trade Organisation, with other countries also introducing plain packing, legal action was less likely.

But British American Tobacco’s New Zealand spokesman Saul Derber said plain packaging in Australia had been a failure – and it would fail here too.

“Not only is the Australian tobacco plain packaging experiment failing to meet its objectives, the policy is having serious unintended consequences,” he said.

“The tobacco black market has grown by over 20 percent in Australia since the introduction of plain packs, costing the Australian government about $NZ1.5 billion in lost revenue in 2015, Mr Derber said.

He said with no graphic health warnings, no controls preventing sales to youth and no tax it was likely the introduction of plain packaging would grow the black market here as well.

Yadayadayadayada “Plain packaging is an attack on companies’ intellectual property rights and undermines the principles on which international trade is founded,” he said.

Associate Health Minister Sam Lotu-Iiga said yesterday the government was confident it could win any legal action taken by tobacco companies.

“We can’t determine what will happen in the courts, but we feel like we’ve seen the evidence from overseas, we’re pretty comfortable with that, and we’re going to move forward,” Mr Lotu-liga said.

Plain cigarette packaging is expected to hit New Zealand shelves from next year.

Tobacco plain-packaging given tick by MPs

Sep 8th, 2016
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Legislation requiring tobacco products to have plain packaging has passed its final hurdle in Parliament.

http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/political/312872/tobacco-plain-packaging-given-tick-by-mps

The bill was first introduced in 2013 before legal action by tobacco companies in Australia put the legislation on hold.

However, that challenge failed last year.

Under standardised packaging all cigarettes and other tobacco products would be in brown or green coloured packaging, similar to what is required in Australia.

Mandatory health warnings would also cover at least three quarters of the packet, and tobacco company marketing imagery removed.

Brand names would be allowed, but there would be restrictions about how and where they could be printed.

Associate Health Minister Sam Lotu-Iiga said the passing of the legislation sent a clear message the government was serious about ending the unnecessary deaths from tobacco use.

“The bland packs will maximise the impact of health warnings and cut out any false impression that smoking is cool or glamorous,” he said.

“Standardised packaging, along with the existing suite of tobacco control measures and quit-smoking services, is a logical next step towards the Smokefree 2025 goal.”

Regulations needed for the law to come into force are currently under development following a public consultation that closed at the end of July.

New Zealand First and the ACT Party were the only parties to oppose the bill.

Plain packaging for tobacco confirmed

Sep 8th, 2016
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https://www.odt.co.nz/news/national/plain-packaging-tobacco-confirmed

Plain packaging for tobacco is on the way after legislation passed its final hurdle tonight.

Associate Health Minister Peseta Sam Lotu-Iiga took a large cigarette packet prop into Parliament’s debating chamber to show what plain packaging could look like.

“This is what will make a difference,” he said.

“When cigarette packs come out of a smoker’s pocket or are left lying around on the table where others can see, there will be nothing but a drab, ugly background colour and large, prominent, graphic pictorial warnings.”

Lotu-Iiga said no other product was so widely used and posed such a direct level of risk to users. Smoking led to between 4500 and 500 premature deaths in New Zealand each year, he said.

“This bill takes away the last means of promoting tobacco as a desirable product. It stops the promotion of smoking as cool, fun, glamorous.

“About 13 people die prematurely every day from smoking-related illnesses…this is a bill to protect children and young people from being tempted from trying cigarettes.”

The legislation passed 108 to 13 votes, with opposition from New Zealand First and the Act Party.

New Zealand First health spokeswoman Barbara Stewart said all parties would be in agreement as to the damage that smoking could cause.

However, New Zealand First had concerns about a lack of evidence that plain packaging was effective, and possible unintended consequences such as an increase in black market sales.

“We have to remind people that $1.6 billion in excise tax is going into the government coffers every year…there is a clear ulterior motive here, and it is not public health, as it should be.

“We remain unconvinced that plain or standardised packaging is effective at reducing tobacco consumption.”

Plain packaging is part of measures designed to make New Zealand smoke-free by 2025, a key goal of the Maori Party.

Maori Party co-leader Marama Fox referenced her confrontation with Imperial Tobacco spokesman Dr Axel Gietz on TV3`s The Nation in June.

Fox stormed out of the TV interview after accusing Gietz of “peddling death and destruction and misery”.

Tonight, she said last night she was visited by a person whose wife had recently died after being a smoker for 40 years.

“He came to bring me his wishes to tackle tobacco control in this country. He said she tried everything…e cigarettes, patches, cold turkey.

“She could not kick the habit, and eventually she died trying. Today I want to remember her.”

Plain packaging for tobacco is likely to be in place early next year.

The government in May released draft regulations and a consultation document which aims to standardise the look of cigarette packs.

New Zealand had been keeping an eye on the outcome of legal challenges against Australia’s plain packaging, one from tobacco firm Philip Morris and another from tobacco-producing countries via the World Trade Organisation (WTO).

Australia won the case against Philip Morris in December.

The WTO challenge is ongoing, but the Government received advice late last year that the Government was on a “firm footing” to progress plain packaging because several other countries, including the UK and Ireland, had introduced it.

These countries did not face a challenge under the WTO.

A pack of 20 cigarettes in New Zealand will increase from about $20 now to around $30 in 2020 after hefty excise increases were announced as part of May’s Budget.

The tax on tobacco will rise by 10 per cent on January 1 each year for the next four years.

That is expected to bring in an extra $425 million in tax over that period.

It will affect the about 15 per cent of adult New Zealanders who smoke each day – about 550,000 people.

That rate increases to 35 per cent for Maori, and 22 per cent for Pacific people.

Lotu-Iiga last month released a consultation document that includes a proposal to legalise the sale of e-cigarettes in New Zealand.

Nicotine patches and gum can be bought, but nicotine e-cigarette liquid must be bought from overseas.

Other countries, like the UK, allow the e-cigarettes or vaporisers to be sold in supermarkets and dairies.

The products would not be allowed to be used in smoke-free areas, and safety measures including child-proof containers will be considered.

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