On November 26th, 2023, New Zealand’s government announced that they are scrapping their idea to ban the sale and distribution of cigarettes nationally in order to fund tax cuts. New Zealand was planning on rolling out the ban next year, given how smoking is the leading cause of preventable deaths in the country. It is suggested that smoke-free laws could have saved over 5000 lives per year. It is believed to have inspired other countries to release similar smoking laws, such as the United Kingdom. Despite this, the National Finance Spokeswoman of New Zealand, Nicola Willis, said “Smoke-free legislation had a significant impact on the government books by about a billion dollars.” Public health experts have said they are “appalled and disgusted” by the government’s decisions and calling on them to backtrack.
