The legislation would also ensure that present health warnings - which carry frighteningly graphic images - would have to be displayed more prominently on cigarette packets.
Breaches could cost companies up to $600,000.
It's the Government's latest step in its goal of a "Smokefree Aotearoa" by 2025 - meaning a smoking prevalence of less than 5 per cent.
But the bill is a vexatious issue. The tobacco industry warns the law would breach intellectual property rights and United States lobbyists threaten the move could compromise New Zealand's trade obligations and wind up in court.
And passing the bill into law is likely to be delayed.
Australia is still fighting expensive legal challenges from tobacco companies and tobacco-producing countries after introducing standardised olive green packs in 2012.
Prime Minister John Key has said he won't support the bill becoming law until the Australian situation is resolved - which could take up to 18 months.
Plain packagingAssociate Health Minister Tariana Turia, who is spearheading the bill, kicked off the parliamentary debate last week highlighting the perils of marketing tobacco as glamorous and sophisticated.
As a grandmother with nearly 50 grandchildren, she said she was acutely aware of the effect of branding on young people.
She also issued a warning to businesses and lobby groups which have hinted they would take legal action if New Zealand introduced plain packaging.
"While the tobacco industry may have laid down a threat that if this legislation is passed [they would litigate], my message to them is that our country has a sovereign right and a legal right to protect its citizens," she said.
"I am firmly of the opinion that it is not for any tobacco company to be telling us what we should be doing in our own land."
New Zealand spends up to $2 billion a year meeting the health needs of people who smoke, Mrs Turia says.
And the dangers are well-publicised.
According to anti-smoking group Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) research, smoking kills nearly 5000 Kiwis each year and at least half of all regular cigarette smokers will eventually die from their addiction.
Maori have an even higher mortality rate from smoking than non-Maori, with more than one-in-five deaths attributable to smoking.
Tobacco use can cause heart disease, strokes, respiratory infections, tuberculosis, lung cancer and blindness, and harms almost every organ in the body.
It is the single biggest preventable cause of death in New Zealand, and the world.
But people are wising up, and even in the United States - home to tobacco giants like Philip Morris - health professionals are beginning to talk about the "end-game" of cigarettes and a "tobacco-free" generation.
An 'orchestra' of interventionsQuitline chief executive Paula Snowden says tobacco companies here and abroad will fight "tooth and nail" to protect their brand.
But protecting Kiwis in their own country is far more important than corporate profits, she says.
"One of the things about smoking is that people are very wedded to their brand and they feel affection for that product. Some people refer to their cigarettes as their 'best friend'.
"When tobacco keeps a consumer loyal to its brand, it is killing people and it is ruining families."
Plain packaging will help break the emotional bond between smokers and cigarettes, she says.
"Anyone in marketing will tell you ... that brand loyalty is everything. We want that product to be as insignificant as possible."
Concerning the meddling of overseas companies, Mrs Snowden says every country has to legislate to protect its citizens.
"New Zealand cannot afford the costs of non-communicable diseases in the health system.
"There are lots of preventable diseases, but this is one we can actually control. It's not like food where you've got good food and bad food ... there's no good cigarette."
Annual tax increases are working, but they need to be better implemented so the industry doesn't have the freedom to choose which products they tax, Mrs Snowden says.
And a smokefree country within 11 years is completely achievable, especially given our progress so far, she says.
"Now that we've got prevalence down to 15 per cent ... it means that what we're doing in this country is working [and] we just need to keep doing it. Smokefree cars, reclaiming outdoor spaces, more tax, plain packaging.
"This is an orchestra of interventions, not just one single instrument."
Big tobacco's counter argumentPredictably, retailers are fighting the bill.
"The Ministry of Health seems hell-bent on supporting legislation forcing plain packaging through, despite the Australian evidence showing retailers are in fact bearing the brunt of this latest attempt to stop people smoking," chairman of the New Zealand Association of Convenience Stores (NZACS) Roger Bull says.
A raft of "anti-smoking" moves in recent years, including the retail display ban, have been hard on sellers, and it will be small businesses that suffer, Mr Bull says.
"While efforts to reduce tobacco consumption are admirable, demonising retailers by making their businesses more difficult is not the answer," he says.
British American Tobacco New Zealand says it is "strongly opposed" to plain packaging.
"International trade agreements founded on the principles of protection of property rights may well be compromised by plain packaging policy," its website says.
Last week a group of American business groups spoke out about the proposed laws, saying they were "deeply disturbed" about the Government's plans.
In a joint statement, the groups - which included the US Chamber of Commerce - argued a business' right to use its trademark would be thrown out the window when the legislation came into effect
The lobbyists threatened that the bill could carry repercussions. "We encourage the New Zealand Government to consider the concerns we have raised for the possible impact on New Zealand exports, such as dairy and wine, should other Governments feel emboldened to take similar unwarranted measures."
Labour's trade spokesman Phil Goff said the group should "butt out" of the debate. APNZ
