An anti-smoking advocacy group wanted Casey Costello to be stripped of her health duties altogether. (file image) Photo: Unsplash / fotografierende
Health experts are outraged at the associate minister's proposal to bring in a three-year freeze on tobacco excise tax.
Associate health minister Casey Costello sought advice on a three-year freeze on the inflation-adjusted tax on smoking tobacco products.
Costello said the tax affected addicted smokers who could come from lower socioeconomic backgrounds.
An anti-smoking advocacy group wanted her to be stripped of her health duties altogether.
A freeze on the excise tax would mean the price of smoking tobacco products would not be increased based on inflation for three years.
Health Coalition Aotearoa co-chairperson Boyd Swinburn said such a move would just make the products more accessible.
"This proposal from Costello to put a three-year freeze on this inflation-adjusted excise tax is essentially meaning that tobacco is going to get relatively cheaper over the next three years, because it won't be keeping pace with the rest of inflation," he said.
Health Coalition Aotearoa co-chair Boyd Swinburn Photo: Supplied
"She's acting more like a minister for the tobacco industry."
Prof Swinburn wanted Prime Minister Christopher Luxon to take action.
"The Health Coalition is calling for her to be replaced as an associate minister of health, given all these policies she's come out with which are really supporting the tobacco industry's position."
In documents revealed to RNZ, Costello was asked if she wanted advice on the freeze for January, to which she circled 'yes' and signed in December.
But the associate minister said it was just information gathering, not a proposal.
"We're dealing with just under 300,000 people who are daily smokers - they are now addicted smokers," Costello said.
"I am committed to looking at the very best options to getting those people away from smoking."
Labour health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall says Costello was standing on shaky ground. Photo: RNZ / Angus Dreaver
Labour health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall said Costello needed to come clean with her intentions.
"We've known for some time that New Zealand First has had a policy against increases in the tobacco excise," the former health minister said.
"The minister is standing on very shaky ground there saying that she's sympathetic to smokers and their addiction.
"The issue here is that smokers in New Zealand have a range of affordable and free alternatives to get them off these deadly products."
Asthma and Respiratory Foundation NZ chief executive Letitia Harding said a freeze on tax was an unbelievable suggestion.
"I think it is outrageous. Outrageous is not reducing the number of tobacco outlets, not supporting very low nicotine content in cigarettes," Harding said, "the banning of the smoke-free generation, so this is just another thing that is totally outrageous."
The coalition government has already announced it would scrap world-leading smoke-free legislation.
Harding said this could be another hit to the smoke-free movement if it went ahead.
"It feels like more of a win for big tobacco.
"We're getting down to extremely low levels of people who smoke in New Zealand, around 7 percent for adults who smoke daily, and we want to encourage people to quit smoking of course, but we also don't want people to take it up."
Asthma and Respiratory Foundation NZ says the proposal feels like more of a win for big tobacco. (file image) Photo: RNZ / Rebekah Parsons-King
Health Aotearoa Commission co-chairperson Leitu Tufuga said it would have the most adverse effects on Māori and Pasifika communities, if it went through.
"We will basically be going backwards," she said.
"We know for Māori they currently have the highest smoking prevalence, then we also look at Pasifika, again they are vulnerable."
She said they needed to see legislation which tackled the smoking prevalence.
Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) director Ben Youden said the proposal simply did not make much sense.
"Given the finance minister has stated last year that tobacco tax is an important revenue, it seems odd that a freeze on excise tax would be on the table."
However, Youden said prices on tobacco needed to walk a fine line between deterring smokers and not financially hindering those addicted.
Costello has also proposed removing the excise tax from smokeless tobacco products, where the tobacco is heated to a vapour rather than burned.
Finance Minister Nicola Willis declined to be interviewed because the proposal "is not under consideration".