Police Minister Stuart Nash pushing for faster removal of cigarettes from dairies

New Police Minister Stuart Nash is hoping to remove tobacco products from dairies sooner rather than later. Photo / NZME

Returning Police Minister Stuart Nash wants to quicken the scheduled reduction of dairies that can sell cigarettes and is engaging fellow ministers with the aim of preventing ram raids.

Last year, former associate Health Minister Dr Ayesha Verrall - now the Health Minister - successfully introduced the Smokefree Environments and Regulated Products (Smoked Tobacco) Amendment Bill into law, which prohibited the sale of smoked tobacco products to anyone born on or after January 1, 2009.

It also included a restriction on the number of businesses that could sell smoked tobacco products - no more than 600 nationally.

Nash, speaking to reporters at a police graduation ceremony in Porirua today, said he would meet with Verrall to discuss how the reduction could be hastened. A spokesperson for Nash later confirmed the pair had already met and talked about the issue, but they planned to discuss it further.

“I want these businesses to feel safe so I don’t want to promise something I can’t deliver on but what I am going to do is talk to the Minister of Health, Dr Ayesha Verrall, and see if we can somehow speed up the removal of tobacco from these dairies,” Nash said.

“If we can get the tobacco out of these dairies, I think that may solve the problem.”

Ram raids became a very common crime-type last year, increasing by more than 500 per cent at one point and leading to various Government interventions, namely through changes to how youth offenders were addressed and extensions to financial support for small business owners.

New Zealand introduced world-leading tobacco legislation last year. Photo / 123rf

Nash, who held the police portfolio in 2017, said it was his understanding many people committing ram raids did so to get tobacco products.

“What I heard when I was in this role previously is that the best way is take what these guys are after out of the dairies and I know Minister Verrall’s looking at this but like I say, I’ll have a talk with her.

“I don’t want to promise something I can’t deliver on but if there’s a way to speed that up, I think it’s a way to keep these people safe.”

Verrall was not available for comment.

National Party police spokesman Mark Mitchell advised Nash to speak to retailers and hear their concerns.

Mitchell said business owners had told him they feared reducing the number of retailers that could sell tobacco would make them a more lucrative target for ram raiders and limiting tobacco access would fuel a black market.

Retail NZ chief executive Greg Harford said business owners had been concerned about the implications of the legislation, particularly around how businesses would be approved and if it would make them more appealing to criminals.

“There is a bit concern out there about what the new arrangements are going to mean,” he said.

“I think our view generally is that it’s not a good idea to do this.”

Harford questioned whether the Ministry of Health was best placed to decide where consumers should be able to purchase products, saying the authority should be given to retailers.

Dairy and Business Owners Group chairman Sunny Kaushal wasn’t available for comment today, but told RNZ in December that 50 per cent of dairies’ revenue came from selling tobacco.

“The Government wants to reduce the number of cigarette outlets from 6000 to 600. That would mean the existence of thousands of dairies is uncertain,” he said.

Kaushal said each of the 600 licences were the equivalent of winning Dr Ayesha Verrall’s “cigarette powerball.”

In a statement to RNZ in December, Verrall said many retailers around the country had already opted to stop selling tobacco.

“Ngā Tai Ora Public Health Unit in Northland did a survey looking at 25 retailers who made the choice to end the sale of tobacco, of which 88 per cent experienced either a neutral or positive financial impact.”