Ae Marika!

A column published in the Northland Age

By Hone Harawira

MP for Tai Tokerau

09 November 2010

To comment on this column please go to my website www.hone.co.nz

Last week the Māori Affairs Committee report on the inquiry into the tobacco industry in Aotearoa was released, including a whole stash of recommendations to halve smoking by 2015 and make New Zealand smoke-free by 2025.

I’ve rewritten the recommendations to make them easy to read and understand (NRT stands for nicotine replacement therapy).

If I were to leave parliament tomorrow, I’d leave a proud and happy man. MPs have been talking about doing something like this for years but never achieved anything because both Labour and National refused to act. So last year I used my brain (for a change) and, capitalising on the Maori Party coalition with the Nats, I proposed the idea of going after the tobacco industry from a Maori perspective. My caucus colleagues supported it, Tari and Pete took it up with John Key, he said yes, and here’s the result.

2010 TOBACCO INQUIRY REPORT - SUMMARY OF RECOMMENDATIONS

Smokefree Tobacco use halved by 2015; NZ smokefree by 2025
Displays Prohibit the display of tobacco products
Packaging Initiate a Plain Packaging campaign in line with Australia
Industry Make the industry to pay for all NRT products
Tax Continue policy of annual tax increases

Reductions: Reduce the amount of tobacco imported into NZ
Reductions: Reduce the number of retail outlets
Reductions: Reduce the number of cigarettes for sale at each outlet
Reductions: Report all additives/nicotine in tobacco and reduce on an annual basis

Retail: Increase penalties for selling tobacco to minors to a maximum of $10,000
Retail: Ensure those selling tobacco be 18 years and over
Retail: Adopt infringement notices, fines, and bans for breaches of the SFE Act
Retail: Empower local bodies to control number and location of tobacco retailers
Retail: Ban cigarette vending machines

SFE: Extend Smokefree Environments (SFE)
SFE: Support the ban on smoking in prisons, with cessation programs
SFE: Increase support for Smokefree events and activities
SFE: Prohibit smoking in cars with children

Strategy: Confirm a Strategy / Action Plan (with Māori focused outcomes)
Strategy: Establish Tobacco Control Authority (with a kaupapa Māori approach)
Strategy: Have the TCA oversee the Strategy and Action Plan to 2025

Research: Ensure research and evaluation of all Māori programmes and services
Research: Review and fund successful cessation programmes

Cessation: Ensure NRT sold everywhere tobacco is sold
Cessation: Enable pharmacists to be Quitcard providers
Cessation: Subsidise a wider range of effective cessation medications

Māori: Include Maori in all tobacco control planning and policy development
Māori: Adopt a Kaupapa Maori approach to tobacco control
Māori: Ensure effective services by Māori for Māori are increasingly available
Māori: Ensure equitable funding to Māori specific programmes and campaigns
Māori: Progress Wai 844 claim “to eliminate smoking among Māori”

Youth: Ensure campaigns reach correct youth demographic, particularly Maori
Youth: Ensure campaigns highlight unacceptability/illegality, of selling to kids
Women: Extend range of services for: women and particularly pregnant women
General: Develop strong, positive campaigns that reach all New Zealanders

Illicit trade: Increase monitoring of illicit trade in imported tobacco products
Home-grown: Reduce personal allowance from 15kg/80 per day to 3kg/20
Duty-free: Adopt international guidelines to reduce duty-free allowances

Policy: Protect policymaking from tobacco industry influence
Awareness: Inform people of continuing industry practices and strategies
Sponsorship Stop covert sponsorship and exclusive supplier deals
Social media: SF campaigns to use new marketing, such as social media websites

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