New Zealand’s shock backflip on ‘generation’ smoking ban

New Zealand has scrapped the world’s first total smoking ban, which would have stopped anyone born after 2008 from legally buying cigarettes.

New Zealand has scrapped its world-leading smoking “generation ban”, which would have stopped anyone born after 2008 from ever legally buying cigarettes.

The world-first legislation was introduced just last year along with several other hard-line measures that aimed to stop younger generations from taking up the unhealthy habit.

Under the laws, New Zealand’s smoking age would have been steadily lowered to stop those born after 2008 from ever buying cigarettes. Tobacco products would have been removed from 90 per cent of New Zealand retailers currently selling them and the amount of nicotine allowed in cigarettes would have also been reduced.

Public health modelling suggested the legislation, which was due to be implemented from July 2024, would save up to 5000 lives each year.

New Zealand has scrapped its world-first smoking ban. Picture: iStock.

But on Saturday, New Zealand’s new finance minister Nicola Willis announced the measures will be axed in order to fund tax cuts.

Ms Willis said that the plan to reduce the amount of shops selling tobacco and the number of consumers who could buy it would have drastically reduced tax revenue for the government.

“Coming back to those extra sources of revenue and other savings areas that will help us to fund the tax reduction, we have to remember that the changes to the smoke-free legislation had a significant impact on the Government books — with about $1 billion there,” she told Newshub Nation.

Prime minister Christopher Luxon said the reversal would prevent a black market tobacco market from forming and stop shops from being targeted for crime.

“Concentrating the distribution of cigarettes in one store in one small town is going to be a massive magnet for crime,” Mr Luxon told Radio New Zealand.

New Zealand prime minister Christopher Luxon won the election six weeks ago but struggled to form a government. Picture: Marty Melville / AFP.

The announcement comes six weeks after Mr Luxon, who leads the National Party, won the New Zealand election but failed to secure a majority, requiring him to do a deal with another party, New Zealand First.

New Zealand First forced the government to find a new way to fund its tax cuts after rejecting a proposal to let foreign buyers back into the country’s property market.

New Zealand’s smoking ban is believed to have inspired a similar policy from the UK’s Tory government, which is fighting to hold onto power ahead of an upcoming national election.

A spokeswoman for UK prime minister Rishi Sunak said his position remained unchanged despite New Zealand’s backflip.