Labour is again calling for Associate Health Minister Casey Costello to be sacked. Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
Labour is again calling for Associate Health Minister Casey Costello to be sacked, after documents she relied on to support a heated tobacco tax cut were inconclusive at best.
Treasury had warned Costello that tobacco company Philip Morris would be the biggest winner from her 50 percent tax cut on the products, which heat tobacco rather than burning it.
The officials pointed to a review of scientific journals by the Ministry of Health, which could find "no compelling evidence of the devices helping to stop smoking".
Costello, however, said she had her own "independent advice". She at first refused to release the advice or be interviewed, but later relented - telling RNZ on Wednesday the advice would be released soon, and the products were less harmful than smoking.
"There's a study, and I'm thinking back ... this will all be released, it's not an issue, there is information plus what we've learnt from other countries who have alternate, so as I said with Japan they saw significant - because they don't have vaping - they saw a significant decrease in smoking using alternate tobacco products," she said.
HTPs are a relatively new product, so evidence about their use is still emerging. Japan bans nicotine from e-cigarettes and vapes, meaning there is no alternative which includes the drug other than HTPs. The Treasury has also warned HTPs appear more harmful than vaping.
Costello said she had not been at all reluctant in releasing the advice she relied on. She had not realised there was concern about its source, she said, and "there was a huge range of advice received through this process as to what we need to do to move forward".
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon on Tuesday said he had not seen the advice, but he had "every confidence in the minister".
Costello last night released that advice - but the five articles she provided do not show strong support.
"The minister looked at a range of information around the effects of HTPs in Japan, and on the general approach of using safer products to help people quit smoking. This wasn't provided by health officials and was the 'independent advice' she referred to," her office said.
Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
Labour's Ayesha Verrall told RNZ it showed Costello could not be trusted, and should be sacked.
"There are many things that Ministers are expected by Cabinets to have worked out for themselves, and when they put assurances in paper to Cabinet about the work they have done to justify the paper they're bringing, that will be taken on trust by their colleagues.
"What the minister has shown here is that her assurance cannot be trusted, and that comes back to Christopher Luxon. Is he going to accept someone who basically prints some junk off the internet as a justification for a $216 million tax cut, being part of his Cabinet?"
Verrall said it was the second time Costello had made a fool of the prime minister.
"She has convinced cabinet to appropriate $216 million towards a benefit exclusively for tobacco companies. And the evidence cabinet trusted her to have does not exist."
Verrall was asked if Costello should be sacked over it.
"Yes. This is an unacceptable standard of behaviour."
She said the documents would be easily findable by searching a website with scientific publications.
"I suspect that's exactly what's happened. Just someone's pulled together something irrelevant to try and paper over the fact the minister has no evidence to support her position.
"One of the papers by the College of Physicians in the UK has been superseded, the one she cited was from 2016 ... there's been one since published in 2019 ... the definition of an electronic cigarette in that document has nothing to do with heated tobacco product, so it's not really relevant."
She said the documents did not seem to support Costello's "tax break for a tobacco company".
"I am not certain that they are all independent. I believe one of the studies may be linked to the tobacco industry, and then the others are not related to the issue of introducing heated tobacco products in New Zealand. Many of the documents are not even about heated tobacco products.
"This is an incredibly poor use of public money, and it seems unacceptable that a government that prides itself on lecturing others on wasteful spending then goes and does this.
"The main issue is that they are not relevant to the question at hand, the question of using heated tobacco products in New Zealand."
Associate Minister Costello has been approached for comment, but was not available in time for publication.