Indonesia might be smokin' but it's not preferable

Like so many Kiwis, it's become a favourite pastime of mine to moan about Covid restrictions and what we could've done better.

It's a long list and it's always a conversation starter.

Of late, as the conversation is ripping into life, and people are getting into full gear on MIQ (my personal hate), border controls, travel restrictions, saliva testing and the late vaccination rollout, I like to ask where in the world you would rather have been?

It's a question that I would put to Fred Frederikse who lately reminisced so wistfully, on these pages, about preferring Indonesia, due entirely to the cheap ciggies on offer there.

Oh, Indonesia, where a whopping 34 per cent of the population, some 57 million people, smoke.

Half of all those lucky Indonesians who smoke, die of smoking-related causes, that's an estimated 300,000 people dying annually from the habit.

It's the place you can smoke in offices, bars, restaurants and even if you don't smoke, you can be exposed to second-hand smoking, a phenomenon that has been greatly diminished here because of progressive tobacco control measures that have cross-party support.

The discussion all but ignores the fact that the vast majority of smokers, when asked, want to give up the habit and have tried numerous times to do so. So hooked are they on the nicotine, that it is an uphill battle for most.

But back to Indonesia. Much better to be there than in little old New Zealand where a raft of measures, including smoke-free environments, taxation, plain packaging and most notably, the availability of e-cigarettes, has seen our smoking rates plummet. Young people are ditching cigarettes big time.

In the last year alone nearly 100,000 fewer people were smoking than the year before. It's a decline that is unprecedented and will save thousands of lives.

And now that dastardly government, not content with the decline, has announced it intends that we all get to the Smokefree 2025 goal together, where less than 5 per cent of us will smoke.

All of us, the rich who have already given up smoking and the poor, many of whom have not; Pākehā, who don't smoke so much, together with Māori and Pasifika who all too often still do.

It has announced that it will ramp up support for community initiatives, much like those that have been so successful in getting to Māori and Pacifica in the vaccine rollout. It will optimise the much less harmful vaping for adults as a quit smoking measure whilst increasing measures to prevent kids from taking up the habit.

All of this will drive down the demand for cigarettes, which is already happening. It's quite hard to feed a black market when no one wants your wretched product. And you can't advertise cigarettes because of course we got rid of tobacco advertising years ago. Unlike Indonesia which provides tax exemptions that provide incentives to tobacco manufacturers to advertise.

With all of that in hand, the Government intends a raft of other measures that have hit the headlines - a smoke-free generation, lessening the addictive nature of cigarettes and reducing the number of outlets that can sell the product.

It's all the intended consequences of the Smokefree 2025 project, a project that continues to have cross-party support.

New Zealand has been uniquely successful in driving down the death, disease and financial burden to individuals, families and our health system. And we are on track to be even more successful. So I ask you, where in the world would you prefer to be?

*Deb Hart is the Director of ASH NZ, an independent not for profit that acts for a smoke-free future.