𝔸𝕤𝕤𝕠𝕔𝕚𝕒𝕥𝕖 ℍ𝕖𝕒𝕝𝕥𝕙 𝕄𝕚𝕟𝕚𝕤𝕥𝕖𝕣 ℂ𝕠𝕤𝕥𝕖𝕝𝕝𝕠 𝕘𝕠𝕥 𝕨𝕒𝕣𝕟𝕚𝕟𝕘 𝕠𝕗 𝕡𝕠𝕤𝕤𝕚𝕓𝕝𝕖 𝕋𝕣𝕖𝕒𝕥𝕪 𝕠𝕗 𝕎𝕒𝕚𝕥𝕒𝕟𝕘𝕚 𝕓𝕣𝕖𝕒𝕔𝕙 𝕠𝕧𝕖𝕣 𝕤𝕞𝕠𝕜𝕖𝕗𝕣𝕖𝕖 𝕝𝕒𝕨 𝕣𝕖𝕡𝕖𝕒𝕝

𝔸𝕤𝕤𝕠𝕔𝕚𝕒𝕥𝕖 ℍ𝕖𝕒𝕝𝕥𝕙 𝕄𝕚𝕟𝕚𝕤𝕥𝕖𝕣 ℂ𝕒𝕤𝕖𝕪 ℂ𝕠𝕤𝕥𝕖𝕝𝕝𝕠 𝕨𝕒𝕤 𝕨𝕒𝕣𝕟𝕖𝕕 𝕥𝕙𝕒𝕥 𝕤𝕔𝕣𝕒𝕡𝕡𝕚𝕟𝕘 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝕤𝕞𝕠𝕜𝕖𝕗𝕣𝕖𝕖 𝕝𝕒𝕨 𝕨𝕠𝕦𝕝𝕕 𝕓𝕖 𝕧𝕚𝕖𝕨𝕖𝕕 𝕒𝕤 𝕒 𝕓𝕣𝕖𝕒𝕔𝕙 𝕠𝕗 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝕋𝕣𝕖𝕒𝕥𝕪 𝕠𝕗 𝕎𝕒𝕚𝕥𝕒𝕟𝕘𝕚.

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NZ has obtained Ministry of Health documents sent to Costello, in which health officials say the law she is repealing would have generated health gains for Māori which were five times that of the general population.

Health officials also warned the minister that overturning the smokefree law could inflict serious reputational damage on New Zealand.

The documents say that under the Pae Ora (Healthy Futures) Act the minister and health agencies must be guided by health sector principles, which include improving health outcomes for Māori.

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Article 2 of the Treaty guarantees "active protection of taonga, including wellbeing," health officials told Costello.

"The right to be smoke free is entrenched in Te Tiriti o Waitangi," the advice to Costello said. "Removing measures that were modelled to reverse inequity and improve health and wellbeing by changing the broader environment to support people to quit, to stay quit, and to never start to smoke is likely to be viewed as a breach of Te Tiriti."

The warning, sent in early December, proved prescient as a group of Māori health experts and advocates filed an application with the Waitangi Tribunal in late January, asking for an urgent hearing of their complaint about the government's plans to repeal the law.

The government is pushing on with the repeal anyway, introducing legislation under urgency on Tuesday. It will not be subject to select committee scrutiny, which normally includes hearing submissions from those affected by the law.

Overturning the law scraps moves to reduce tobacco retailers from 6000 to 600, remove 95 percent of the nicotine from cigarettes and create a smokefree generation by banning sales to those born after 2009.

RNZ reported yesterday that health officials urged Costello to retain key aspects of the law, which they described as an "endgame" for the tobacco industry in New Zealand.

Outsized impact of smokefree laws on Māori

In the briefings obtained by RNZ, health officials lay out how Māori will be affected by repealing the law, given the Māori population is younger and has much higher smoking rates than non-Māori.

Health officials told Costello that reducing the level of nicotine in cigarettes from about 15 mg/g to 0.8mg/g from April 2025 would almost wipe out smoking for the biggest group of smokers: Māori women.

It says that if implemented in 2023 reducing nicotine alone would have reduced daily smoking rates for Māori women from 37 percent to 10 percent by 2025 and down to just 1.3 percent by 2030.

The papers show that smoking is the "leading cause of avoidable morbidity and mortality" in New Zealand with 12-13 deaths every day caused by smoking or exposure to second-hand smoke.

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Reputational risk to NZ

The documents also warn that New Zealand faces reputational damage from repealing the smokefree law.

Health officials told the minister that the strategy followed in the smokefree law was ranked highest among 25 other international models, in a peer reviewed study published in the journal Tobacco Control.

"There is significant reputational risk with repealing the smokefree amendments and there is very strong support for the legislation within the health sector," Costello was told. "Many countries have looked to New Zealand as a leading example in tobacco control."

Officials said the UK would soon introduce a smokefree generation bill that reflects the New Zealand model and America's Food and Drug Administration (FDA) was looking at low-nicotine requirements.

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