National’s repeal of Labour’s smokefree legislation has taken New Zealand further away from achieving a Smokefree 2025 and a smokefree generation.

The NZ Health Survey shows both smoking and vaping rates have increased in the last year, with the number of daily smokers increasing from 284,000 to 300,000.

This follows more than a decade of consistent decreases in the number of adults smoking.

“One of the first things the National Government did was overturn laws that were helping kiwis get off cigarettes and preventing young people from taking up smoking in the first place,” Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said.

“Scrapping our legislation was done to advantage the tobacco companies and retailers, not to protect New Zealanders’ health. Now we’re seeing the results of that.

“The Government should never have repealed the groundbreaking laws that we passed in government, which would have created a smokefree generation.

“Instead, National and its coalition partner New Zealand First agreed to side with the tobacco industry and stub out those laws in favour of tax cuts.

“There is a mountain of evidence that smoking is harmful, that it is New Zealand’s leading cause of premature death. And yet the Government chose to put tax cuts ahead of health and protecting our kids from harmful tobacco.

“Just last month, Christopher Luxon said his associate health minister Casey Costello is very focused on lowering smoking rates, and that he was “comfortable.” However, rates are up and it’s clear Costello hasn’t delivered.

“The only thing she has delivered is a $216 million tax break to tobacco company Philip Morris flog its heated tobacco product which will make no difference to smoking rates and won’t reduce the harm of tobacco for users,” Chris Hipkins said.

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