NZ Minister Casey Costello: Australia's tobacco and vape law ‘failure'
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A leading New Zealand Government politician has attributed her nation's 'massive decline' in daily cigarette smokers to the regulation of vaping products.
As the political blame game continues over how Australia should combat the spiralling tobacco wars, Minister of Customs and Associate Health Minister Casey Costello told The Daily Telegraph her government had taken an approach of 'consent, rather than coercion'.
Unlike Australia, New Zealand has allowed nicotine vapes to be legally sold, but with strict guardrails applied to retailers.
The products are regularly tested by health officials, single-use vapes are banned and there are also restrictions on flavours.
'The message really simply is 'if you don't smoke, don't vape'. If you smoke … vaping may help,' Ms Costello told this masthead.
'At no point are we saying vaping is without harm, what we're saying is that it is less harmful.'
The Minister said regulated vaping products are also exempt from the crippling government tax applied to cigarettes, a policy deliberately designed to encourage people to quit smoking.
'We had reached a point with the long-term addicted smokers that increasing the excise wasn't going to make a difference. There are cases of people who will go without food or electricity in order to smoke. You could've made cigarettes $100 a pack. All we were doing was reducing people to poverty' Ms Costello said.
When asked to comment on the ongoing debate over the involvement of police on tobacco enforcement, Ms Costello said 'it's a health issue'.
'This is about day-to-day health compliance. As an ex-cop, there are some big issues that police are already dealing with,' she said.
She also confirmed New Zealand had moved to ban retailers from luring children into their businesses.
'The vaping stores here are like candy wonderlands. They are brightly coloured, shiny lights, designed to look attractive to young people. As of June 17 they won't be able to display this way, so young kids won't be attracted to the bright, shiny lights,' Minister Costello said.
Casey Costello, New Zealand's Minister of Customs and Associate Minister of Health, says Australia's approach to illicit tobacco had been an 'appalling failure.' Source: Facebook
In separate comments discovered by this masthead, Ms Costello on Thursday told a New Zealand podcast she thought Australia's response to illicit tobacco had been an 'appalling failure' after a recent trip to our country.
'If you see a young person smoking in New Zealand, it's like a unicorn. But Darling Harbour, across the waterfront, there were young people smoking. We don't have that and we need to be proud of that,' Ms Costello told Taxpayer Talk.
New Zealand's smoking rate has declined from more than 14 per cent in 2019 to just 6.9 per cent in 2023.
In the same period the number of daily smokers in Australia fell from 11 per cent to 8.3 per cent.
Responding to the criticism from across the ditch, Federal Health Minister Mark Butler insisted 'Australia's world-leading smoking and vaping legislations are working.'
'Making sure young people didn't get addicted to vapes was always our focus. They were told vapes were a safe alternative to smoking, but that was all a ruse from Big Tobacco. We know vaping has become a gateway to cigarette smoking,' Mr Butler said.
Health Minister Mark Butler insists Australia has the right approach towards vaping and smoking. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman
'Traders selling illicit tobacco might think this is a relatively harmless, innocuous trade, but it's undermining public health. Every time they sell a packet of these illegal cigarettes, they are bankrolling the criminal activities of some of the vilest, worst organised criminal gangs in this country.'
Australia has roughly 700,000 people vaping, according to the Institute of Health and Welfare. Currently vapes can only be purchased through a pharmacy - with the government aware of 40,000 patients using this service between October 2024 and May 2025 – meaning the majority of vapers continue to purchase illicit products.
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