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Smokers will be paying more for tobacco from tomorrow, and the price is going to keep on rising.
The government brought legislation to parliament to raise the excise duty on tobacco, meaning cigarettes are set to become even more expensive.
Parliament has gone into extraordinary urgency to debate the just-tabled legislation that will introduce a three step price rise in tobacco products over the next two years.
There will be an immediate 10% price increase for cigarettes followed by another 10% every January up until 2012, meaning the price of a pack of 20 cigarettes will be raised by about $1 to around $11.
Loose tobacco products are set to become even more expensive,
facing a 24% price increase next January followed by two further
10% increases in following years.
Associate Health Minister Tariana Turia, a strong anti-smoking
campaigner, says the move aims to save lives and is a clear signal
the government is serious about reducing the death toll from
smoking.
She says the move will put the price of cigarettes up enough to save hundreds of lives.
Turia told parliament today that one in five New Zealanders are regular smokers, among Maori women the figure rises to one in two.
She says putting up the price is a powerful tool to stop smoking and will force smokers to cut back their habit.
"It's very simple. All smokers who buy tobacco will face the price rises. The more someone smokes, the more they pay, and the bigger the incentive for them to quit."
"For too many years we've turned a blind eye to this...the price of cigarettes has plateaued and the reduction in the number of smokers has stalled," she said.
"Helping smokers quit is a priority of this government and one of our health targets."
A survey published in January this year found half of New Zealanders wanted smoking to be banned outright by 2020.
The 2008 Health and Lifestyles Survey compiled nationwide interviews from the Health Sponsorship Council of 1608 people, including 422 smokers, and was published in the NZ Medical Journal.
It found 50% of people agreed cigarettes should no longer be sold in New Zealand in 10 years, 30% disagreed and 20% neither agreed nor disagreed. Of the smokers surveyed, 26% agreed and 55% disagreed.
Labour has supported the move, with associate health spokesman Iain Lees-Galloway saying the party had consistently argued for measures that encouraged people to quit smoking.
"Sadly, legislation to increase the price of tobacco does not address issues such as point of sale advertising," he said.
ACT MP Sir Roger Douglas says the government was already getting about $1 billion a year in tobacco excise, and the increase would disproportionately impact on poor people.
"You have to weigh up the benefits that might or might not flow from this with individual freedom," he said.
"The 'I know what's best for you' mentality is getting out of hand...our flight from individual responsibility never ends."
Sir Roger said that if the government believed that raising the price of tobacco really worked, it should increase it by much more.
"Why not put it up 600%, then you would fix it," he said.
Price hike praised
The Quit Group says it's preparing to see the number of people contacting Quitline for help to quit smoking to double or even triple.
"The last time we saw a significant taxation increase for tobacco was back in May 2000. Overnight we saw our call volumes almost triple from 6000 to 16,000 calls per month," Quit Group chief executive Paula Snowden said.
"We fully expect to see an increase in quit attempts, which is great, and our advisors are there to help people using the tax increases as a prompt for thinking about those other, more sustainable reasons for overcoming their addiction."
While it took on average six serious attempts to break the habit for good, those who contacted Quitline were five times more likely to succeed, she says.
Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) says it expected some smokers would quit in response to the tax increase.
"However a bigger increase would have resulted in great numbers of smokers quitting," said ASH director Ben Youdan.
Last year the tobacco industry discounted prices heavily by around $1 per packet, so even with this increase we are treading water in terms of tobacco affordability, he said.
"We've seen that the tobacco industry has an ability to take smaller margins and absorb tax increases, and we hope they do not exploit this opportunity to encourage quitting.
"The upside of a staggered approach is that it will give smokers and the support systems around them the time to prepare for quit attempts on a large scale."
The Salvation Army has applauded the move, but wished the government had the courage to act as harshly against alcohol.
"We hope a government willing to recognise the harm tobacco
causes will have the courage to more heavily tax alcohol, which has
even wider community costs and detriments," Salvation Army
spokesperson Major Campbell Roberts says.
Is this a good move? Will the price hike stop you from smoking? Or will you continue no matter what price they are? Let us know on the message board below:
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Add a Comment:
Post new commentBlueEggCarton said on 2010-05-29 @ 21:08 NZDT: Report abusive post
My name is Becky and I am 13 yrs old.Like a lot of families in NZ my family is on the lower end of wage earners, on top of that my father is a smoker & has been for sometime.The new law has put great strain on us as a family as a lot of money already goes to purchasing cigaretes.It is not fair as even tho my father has tried to giv up numerous times b4 I can tell that he isnt going to happen in the near future. In the meantime we hav 2 sufer by not being able 2 aford various things financially!
ALSKI said on 2010-05-03 @ 11:08 NZDT: Report abusive post
So, it was the Maori Party that instigated this tobacco tax hike and the government rushed the legislation through under urgency to appease them because they need their vote to carry their own. The Maori Party was formed to improve the lot of Maori, a racist attitude but neverthless that is what they should stick to and if there is a problem with smoking and Maori health then they should address that only and butt out of imposing their crusades on the rest of us
jezebell said on 2010-05-01 @ 14:44 NZDT: Report abusive post
Sick and tired from hearing that smoking kills- What a lot of B.S.- diseases- as cancer kill, but not smoking. It is the same as saying that driving kills- you increase your chances of being in car crash by 80% when you drve a car, so- Driving kills!!!. And smoking increasing your chances of getting a cancer by what -30%? Did they forget to mention positive sides of smoking- of cause it is heresy!!! Let's start a witch hunt and burn smoking heretics at stake. Well done Great Inquisitors!!!!
leonie47 said on 2010-04-30 @ 10:30 NZDT: Report abusive post
Well i think its not fair on the people that have allready tryed to give up smoking and have not succeeded.they are on medication that prevents them from trying the pills that are out. So are really struggling with the habit.This is what im going through at the moment and im sure there are others out there like myself and this price increase is so unfair.
ALSKI said on 2010-04-30 @ 09:09 NZDT: Report abusive post
MOUTHGUARD if you thought i meant change to Labour, no way! Labour and National work hand in glove. Witness the buyback of the creamed off rail system.The taxpayer is now forking out again to upgrade the rolling stock and system ready for the next sell off to the "creamers" What's the betting that National will increase the alcohol tax "Due to overwhelming public concern about the unfairness of taxing tobacco to address health concerns and not applying the same to alcohol"