Opposition health spokeswoman Dr Ayesha Verrall’s new Tobacco Transparency Bill, launched yesterday, aims to increase transparency, improve policy making, and stop the government from supporting, endorsing or advocating for the tobacco industry’s interests.
University of Otago researcher and Aspire Aotearoa co-director Prof Janet Hoek said the Bill was long overdue.
"What the Bill is trying to do is to bring to light the evidence that would enable us to find out whether the [coalition] parties were benefiting from it.
"At the moment, we don’t know."
The Bill was partly inspired by the actions of Associate Health Minister Casey Costello, who led the repeal of the Smokefree Environments and Regulated Products (Smoked Tobacco) Amendment Act 2022.
It effectively scrapped laws aimed at slashing tobacco retailers from 6000 to 600, removing 95% of the nicotine from cigarettes and creating a smokefree generation by banning sales to those born after 2009.
Prof Hoek and Radio New Zealand sought information under the Official Information Act (OIA) to see what justification the ministry used to repeal the Act.
Initially, Ms Costello refused to release any documents, citing a clause in the OIA legislation protecting confidential advice tendered by ministers and officials.
So Prof Hoek and RNZ referred their OIA requests to chief ombudsman Peter Boshier, who ordered Ms Costello to release the information.
Prof Hoek said they eventually received "a flood" of emails and documents, which had been heavily redacted by the ministry.
"It’s very difficult when a lot of the material is being heavily redacted because obviously you don’t know what you don’t know and it makes it difficult to undertake any kind of rigorous analysis.
"All we do know is that we’ve seen a move towards decisions that align with the tobacco industry’s interests.
"And that’s not just the repeal of the smokefree measures.
"There were tax reductions on heated tobacco products, and there have been proposals to introduce oral nicotine products, which the tobacco industry has been pushing."
Prof Hoek said it left many in the health and research sectors asking questions.
"Does this new direction align with the research evidence? The answer to that is no.
"Does it follow the expert advice from the Ministry of Health or from people like me working in the area? The answer to that is no.
"Is there really resounding public support for this new direction of travel? Again, the answer to that is quite clearly no.
"You end up thinking, who is going to benefit from these decisions and I think that’s where you inevitably have to start considering the tobacco industry and what influence they’ve had."
Under the Tobacco Transparency Bill, the prime minister would have to issue policies requiring ministers to declare any interests they have in tobacco companies; the minister of health would provide guidance for public officials explaining the potential for tobacco industry influence; and the public service commissioner would set standards for officials involved in developing tobacco control policies.
Prof Hoek said the Bill would stop the government from supporting, endorsing or advocating for the tobacco industry’s interests, and promote stronger compliance with Article 5.3 of the World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, which calls on parties to protect "policies from commercial and other vested interests of the tobacco industry".
The Bill would also prevent people with interests in the tobacco industry from working on tobacco policy, and limit officials’ ability to move directly from government roles to positions in tobacco companies.
"If politicians have got nothing to hide, that would be really obvious, and I think the net effect would be that some of the trust that’s been lost in the government could potentially be regained.
"The repeal of measures that would have seen New Zealand realise the Smokefree 2025 goal appalled the public health community.
"This Bill will protect policies that promote wellbeing and equity, and that will benefit all New Zealanders," she said.
