The coalition government of New Zealand has decided to freeze tobacco duty and excise for the next 3 years it will be in power, which will give it some time to assimilate more and closer to inflation. The tobacco duty and excise in New Zealand follows the pattern of inflation each year, but for a packet of 25 cigarettes New Zealanders are charged NZ $ 35 which is the equivalent of £19 GBP and US $ 24, after punitive and excessive taxes have been paid and applied and the product price has multiplied several times in comparison to the production cost.
“There is a high cost being paid by the people who can least afford it, because they have an addiction to nicotine and we’re continuing to penalise that demographic of society. I have some sympathy for a freeze because we are now dealing with a much smaller group of people that are carrying an incredible financial burden” pointed out the associate health minister of New Zealand Casey Costello while she came under attack from anti-smoking proponents.
Although democracy does not work in the same way, little do anti-smoking proponents or even New Zealanders know about democracy as a health advocate who disagrees with the move of the associate health minister publicly advocated removing her from her position by saying that “Casey Costello has lost all credibility as an associate minister of health. Everything she has done to date is anti-health – in fact she is acting more like a minister for the tobacco industry. The Health Coalition is calling for her to be replaced as an associate minister of health, given all these policies she’s come out with which are really supporting the tobacco industry’s position.” – given that the associate health minister has been elected to her post it is imprudent to ask someone else who is presiding over the cabinet to sack her knowing that they too have been elected to their post.
The local leader of Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) was surprised that the freeze would not make sense as he said that “Given the finance minister has stated last year that tobacco tax is an important revenue, it seems odd that a freeze on excise tax would be on the table”.
Bring Back Smoking Freedom 