Alleged ties between NZ First and vaping companies a 'dangerous risk' to New Zealanders, anti-vape group warns
RNZ
An advocacy group set up to keep children off nicotine wants New Zealand First to be stripped of the tobacco and vaping portfolio.
The call from Vape-Free Kids comes after RNZ published documents alleging close ties between tobacco giant Philip Morris and New Zealand First.
"Having such an influential party in government appearing to have a strong allegiance to the tobacco industry poses a dangerous risk to the health of New Zealanders," Vape-Free Kids co-founder Charyl Robinson, said.
The documents, released as part of lawsuits against US vaping company JUUL, claim Philip Morris allegedly pitched draft legislation to NZ First as part of a lobbying campaign for its Heated Tobacco Products (HTPs).
The documents also claim Philip Morris (PMI) corporate affairs staff "reached out to NZ First to try and secure regulation to advantage IQOS" - the HTP with a monopoly in the New Zealand market.
Bower Group Asia, which advised JUUL on plans for a New Zealand launch, claimed NZ First leader Winston Peters "has a relationship with PMI" and "any regulation he champions is likely to be very industry friendly and highly geared towards commercial interests in the sector".
The documents - largely dated from 2018 and 2019 - shed new light on controversial policy changes led by NZ First in the current coalition government, and the party's relationship with the nicotine industry.
NZ First MP Casey Costello, as associate health minister, has delegated responsibility for tobacco and vaping policy.
Photo:
RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
Last year, NZ First MP and Associate Health Minister Casey Costello halved the excise tax on HTPs at a potential cost of $200 million, a move Treasury said would mainly benefit Philip Morris as the sole importer.
Costello acted despite health officials telling her there was no strong evidence that HTPs worked as a smoking cessation tool or that they were significantly safer than cigarettes.
Two senior corporate communication positions at Philip Morris are held by people who previously held top roles in NZ First.
David Broome, chief of staff for NZ First between 2014 and 2017, is external relations manager at Philip Morris.
Apirana Dawson - who was director of operations and research in the office of Winston Peters between 2013 and 2017, and led the election campaigns for the party in 2014 and 2017 - is the company's director of external affairs.
Vape-Free Kids said it was time for Prime Minister Christopher Luxon to remove the tobacco and vaping portfolio from New Zealand First.
"He must step in and at the least reassign this portfolio to make it clear that public health policy in Aotearoa is not for sale," Robinson said.
Vape-Free Kids co-founder Charyl Robinson
Photo:
Supplied
But Luxon, addressing reporters on his way to Parliament, said Costello was a "great minister" and he was "very proud" of her record.
RNZ put a detailed list of questions to Peters two days before publication but he did not address any of them, instead posting on social media that he was proud of NZ First's record on tobacco control.
"Since New Zealand First's smokefree policy was implemented in 2020, the smoking rates have drastically decreased to the point where we are now one of the leading two countries in the world for lowest smoking rates. The smokefree legislation that we implemented is working."
He did not address the allegations that New Zealand First received material from PMI, but his social media post said engagement with the tobacco industry was legitimate.
"Multiple government departments have themselves proactively reached out to, and met with, 'big tobacco' for direct feedback and advice on tobacco legislation," he said on X.
"Is [RNZ reporter] Guyon [Espiner] saying now that government departments including Customs and Health, have dodgy links to 'big tobacco' and that officials should be subject to his 'lynch mob' reporting," he asked. "This convenient omission by Guyon that government officials meet with 'big tobacco' for advice is palpable in its bias and contradiction."
As a signatory to the World Health Organisation's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), New Zealand promises to "protect policies from the commercial and other vested interests of the tobacco industry".
"There is a fundamental and irreconcilable conflict between the tobacco industry's interests and public health policy interests," the FCTC says.
The Health Ministry says the FCTC requires signatories to "observe complete transparency in their dealings with the tobacco industry". Since 2011 it has kept a public record of meetings with tobacco lobbyists.
The allegations were among a trove of documents released on the Truth Tobacco Industry Documents online archive.
Photo:
RNZ
Auckland University honorary research fellow Melissa-Jade Gregan - whose PhD explored how the alcohol, food, gambling, and tobacco industries influence politics - said New Zealand's lobbying laws were too lax.
Gregan has extensively searched the JUUL papers, which are hosted on the Truth Tobacco Industry Documents archive, created in 2002 by the University of California San Francisco Library.
The archive, which is still being updated, contains nearly 19 million documents, including 3.8 million relating to JUUL.
"What we see through these documents isn't a conspiracy - it's standard practice for how these industries operate in New Zealand," she said.
"The tobacco and vaping industries, alcohol, junk food, they've developed a sophisticated, effective approach to political influence that takes full advantage of our complete lack of lobbying regulations."
Gregan said New Zealand's reputation for open and transparent government was largely a myth.
"We have this political system where the industries causing health harm ostensibly have systematic and primarily unseen access to decision-makers."
Labour health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall said RNZ's revelations showed why her members' bill, which would tightly restrict the influence of the tobacco industry on government, was needed.
"Around the world, tobacco companies have a long history of influencing and weakening health policies to better suit their bottom line and here we see evidence of it happening in New Zealand."
Verrall's bill, which would need to be drawn from the ballot to come before Parliament, would prohibit governments supporting the interests of the tobacco industry.
It would also impose a six-month stand-down period before officials involved in tobacco policy could work for the industry.
"It's time we get rid of the smokescreen and protect Kiwis from big tobacco's lobbying tactics - they have no place in health policy," Verrall said.
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