New Zealand Walks Back Historic Smoking Ban Legislation

In 2022, New Zealand was lauded for passing the world's first generational smoking ban. The historic legislation, scheduled to go into effect in 2023, introduced an annually rising smoking age each year. The ultimate goal was to prohibit anyone born after 2009 from ever being able to legally purchase cigarettes. However, in a surprising turn of events, New Zealand has backtracked its course on the ban, announcing a disappointing reversal that has drawn criticism from public health officials.

The legislation aimed to progressively raise the smoking age each year, until it eventually covered the entire population. This initiative was part of a broader plan to achieve a “smoke-free” New Zealand by 2025, thereby alleviating strains on the healthcare system and curbing thousands of smoking-related deaths.

New Zealand’s new government has now done away with the historic anti-smoking legislation it passed in 2022, potentially abandoning the opportunity to prevent thousands of smoking-related deaths among Kiwis every year. (AP Photo/David Rowland)

The policy was initially passed under the previous government, led by the liberal Prime Minister Jacinda Arden. However, with the recent change in leadership, New Zealand saw the election of its most right-wing government in decades. The new prime minister, Christopher Luxon, will lead his center-right National Party in a coalition alongside the smaller libertarian party, Act. Following his inauguration, Luxon immediately announced the reversal of the smoking law and emphasized curbing inflation as a top priority for his government.

Finance minister Nicola Willis said that the government’s plan to dramatically reduce the number of stores selling tobacco would only lead to a “massive black market.” Similarly, Prime Minister Luxon defended the reversal when he said, “Concentrating the distribution of cigarettes in one store in one small town is going to be a massive magnet for crime,” in an interview with Radio New Zealand.

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon, head of the National Party and the most conservative government to take power in New Zealand in a generation. (AP Photo/Brett Phibbs)

The incoming government was under heavy pressure to deliver on campaign promises of tax cuts, especially after it abandoned other plans to fund these cuts, such as imposing taxes on foreign buyers who buy property in New Zealand. Now that it has reversed the ban on tobacco products, the government says it will use the revenue from taxes on tobacco sales to pay for its promised tax cuts.

However, the decision has drawn heavy criticism from health ministers and the public, who have called it a win for the tobacco industry at the expense of public health.

Health Coalition Aotearoa (HCA), a coalition of NGOs, professionals, and academics fighting for public health equity and reducing harm from tobacco, alcohol, and unhealthy food, released a statement condemning the new government’s decision and calling for the full implementation of the smoking laws. According to the proposal published by the Ministry of Health for a smoke-free New Zealand by 2025, smoking tobacco products kills around 4,500-5,000 New Zealanders every year.

When the law was originally passed, it served as a model for new legislation in other countries — it was thought to have inspired Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to introduce similar restrictions in the United Kingdom. Despite New Zealand’s reversal, much of the rest of the world has continued with stricter anti-smoking laws to hopefully build “smoke-free generations” in the coming decades.