Prime Minister Christopher Luxon, flanked by Act leader David Seymour, at the swearing-in ceremony at Government House. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Redefining Te Tiriti o Waitangi, scrapping smokefree legislation and culture wars.
With an election cycle dominated by the cost of living crisis, inflation and tax cuts, the issues now taking up airtime may come as a surprise to those who were at the ballot box just a few months ago.
Deputy political editor Thomas Coughlan told the Herald’s Front Page podcast the Government has a problem in that it’s “obsessed with things no one really cares about”.
Repealing New Zealand’s world-renowned anti-smoking legislation, labelled as “completely backwards” by some critics last year, is one issue Coughlan believed most people “couldn’t care less about”.
The proposal was thrust back into the spotlight in the last few weeks after Associate Health Minister Casey Costello told RNZ she had not sought advice on freezing the excise on cigarettes for three years, despite a Ministry of Health document saying she had.
“I’ve had no discussions on that at all. It’s not even something I specifically sought advice on,” Costello said to RNZ when it first broke the story. “I haven’t looked at a freeze on the excise at all.”
Coughlan told The Front Page the election was fought on issues like reducing inflation and tax cuts, which he believed the Government had not been speaking about lately.
“The Government has a tendency that it needs to correct [of] getting distracted with minor issues that no one cares about.”
Coughlan said the bill had been sitting with Health Minister Dr Shane Reti before Christmas but he delegated it to Costello, suggesting National wanted to “rub its hands” of the proposal.
“Basically implying that he certainly didn’t want to deal with [it] and hinting very strongly that this was very much New Zealand First’s agenda rather than National’s.”
All three coalition parties had opposed the earlier legislation, and when it came to coalition negotiations, Coughlan believed the parties put that opposition into practice and agreed to bin it.
“New Zealand First has always opposed the more stringent anti-smoking measures. In the last Government, they triggered a very rare agree-to-disagree provision when Labour hiked the tobacco excise.”
Listen to the full episode to hear more from Coughlan on how the smokefree legislation became a thorn in the Government’s side.
The Front Page is a daily news podcast from the New Zealand Herald, available to listen to every weekday from 5am. This episode was presented by Katie Harris, an Auckland-based journalist with a background in social issues reporting who joined the Herald in 2020.
You can follow the podcast at iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
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