Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has admitted the government has ‘got it wrong’ after incorrectly claiming there would be only one tobacco retailer in the whole of Northland, after scrapping Labour’s smokefree law changes.
There would, in fact, be 35, according to the Ministry of Health.
Speaking to the media in Auckland on Sunday, Luxon admitted he had got it wrong, but claimed the bigger point was there would be a higher concentration of crime on fewer outlets if the changes were passed.
“The actual policy that the previous Labour government announced would mean there would be a massive concentration of a few outlets…and that will just become a magnet for crime and continue to drive a black market,” he said.
The figure was first questioned by TVNZ Q+A host Jack Tame on Sunday morning, while interviewing Hutt South MP Chris Bishop.
Bishop said a reduction in the number of places selling cigarettes would make those sites a target of crime, and pointed to there being “one store in Northland” under the previous Government’s plan.
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The figure was first questioned by TVNZ Q+A host Jack Tame on Sunday morning, while interviewing Hutt South MP Chris Bishop.
Tame challenged Bishop on that claim, saying Northland would have 35 sites under the plan.”There’d be one store in Northland, that’s my understanding,” Bishop repeated.
At the media stand-up on Sunday afternoon, Luxon was asked how he could get it so wrong. He responded saying the government hadn’t expressed their claims the way they should have.
“We didn’t express it the way we should have, which is that there will be towns across Northland, across New Zealand that only have one or two retail outlets in them, which will become a magnet for crime.”
Luxon denied misleading the public.
The new coalition government plans to scrap legislation that includes denicotisation of cigarettes, a reduction in retailers and banning cigarettes for the next generation.
Research released in July 2022 found that legislation could mean the death gap, for those aged 45 and older, was reduced by 22.9% for Māori females compared to non-Māori females, and 9.6% for Māori males compared to non-Māori males.
