50,000 signatures reached
To: Coalition Government (National Party, ACT Party, NZ First Party)
Put our People over Profit - Stop the Repeal of the Smokefree Legislation
This campaign has ended.
We urgently call on the Government to stop the repeal of the Smokefree Environments and Regulated Products (Smoked Tobacco) Amendment Act.
We implore that they stop prioritising profit over our people and demand full implementation of the Smokefree Legislation as it stands, with Māori leadership as one of its top recommendations for action.
We expect that the three measures introduced in 2022 are carried out in their entirety, including the:
- Denicotisation of cigarettes to 0.8mg/g
- Reduction of tobacco outlets from 6000 to 600
- Implementation of a smokefree generation policy
Why is this important?
Māori Leadership in 2010 led the march to protect Māori and all population groups of Aotearoa against the negative harm of tobacco on whānau. A Smokefree Aotearoa goal by 2025 was set with a target of having less than 5% of all populations smoking.
This new coalition government of National, ACT and NZ First will go down in history in the wrong way, allowing Big Tobacco lobbyists to inform a roll back of world leading public health action.
Our communities have spoken, loud and clear, since the 2010 Health Select and Māori Affairs Select committee that this is what they want, the people of Aotearoa New Zealand will be failed once again, all in the name of a handful of tax cuts.
Currently, 5,000 New Zealanders die from the harms of tobacco-related illnesses every year. If we repeal the Smokefree Act, loved ones will die, all so tobacco companies can continue to profit.
In 2022 we introduced world-leading legislation to support the goal for Aotearoa to be smokefree by 2025. The need is clearly demonstrated, that Māori, Pacific and low socio-economic neighbourhoods are saturated with tobacco sale points, and have the highest smoking rates.
We simply cannot afford to go backwards, while our whānau continue to die at the hands of this product.
The government of 2023 will walk away with the literal blood of its constituents on its hands.