New Zealand parliament committee calls for smoking ban in 15 years

Nov 3, 2010, 0:07 GMT

Wellington - The Maori affairs committee of the New Zealand parliament called for a total ban on smoking tobacco by 2025 in a report released Wednesday after a wide-ranging inquiry.

It recommended that retail displays of cigarettes be prohibited and the government take steps to halve the number smoking in five years as an interim measure.

One-in-five adult New Zealanders smoke, but the rate is much higher among the indigenous Maori population where 45 per cent are regular smokers, according to the health ministry.

The committee's recommendations are not binding on the government, and Prime Minister John Key said it would be 'extremely difficult' to achieve a smoke-free New Zealand by the target of 2025.

He said government policy was to keep increasing the price of cigarettes and tobacco, which had proved to be a deterrent for young people.

The committee urged the government to consider requiring tobacco companies to finance the cost of all smoking cessation drugs, including nicotine replacement therapy products, and take measures to make annual cuts in the amount of tobacco imported and the number of retail outlets allowed to sell it.

The Public Health Association welcomed the report as a landmark in smoke-free initiatives, but Richard Green, tobacco spokesman for the Association of Community Retailers, said that cutting imports would do nothing to reduce consumption or demand.

'Limiting supply will only open up our country to a huge black market and organized crime,' he said. 'Demand will be filled. If not legally, then it will be filled illegally.'