New Zealand's world-first smokefree generation laws were repealed by the National-led coalition in February 2024.

What happened:

• The repeal: under urgency on 27 February 2024, three measures from the 2022 Smokefree law were scrapped — a ban on selling tobacco to anyone born after 1 January 2009 (the "smokefree generation"), cutting tobacco retailers from about 6,000 to 600, and removing up to 95% of the nicotine from cigarettes (RNZ).
• The rationale: National, ACT and NZ First framed it as reducing retail-crime risk, supporting dairies and small retailers, and recovering about $1 billion of forecast excise revenue; it was written into the coalition agreements.

Why it matters:

• Smoking is New Zealand's leading cause of preventable death and a major modifiable cause of cancers, including bowel cancer. Māori and Pacific smoking rates (18–20%) run about three times the European rate, so the repeal lands hardest on the communities with the worst smoking-related harm (ASPIRE).
• Public-health experts, Māori and Pacific health leaders and the Opposition strongly opposed it; modelling had projected the endgame measures would save thousands of lives and billions in health costs (ScienceDirect).

The politics:

Labour, the Greens and Te Pāti Māori opposed the repeal, and restoring smokefree measures is likely to be a 2026 election dividing line. Verdict: a deliberate reversal of a world-leading public-health policy — defended on cost and retail grounds, and condemned as a step back for Māori health and tobacco control

The Policy: National Smokefree Policy — 2023 Election →

ew Zealand's world-first smokefree generation laws were repealed by the National-led coalition in February 2024.

What happened:

• The repeal: under urgency on 27 February 2024, three measures from the 2022 Smokefree law were scrapped — a ban on selling tobacco to anyone born after 1 January 2009 (the "smokefree generation"), cutting tobacco retailers from about 6,000 to 600, and removing up to 95% of the nicotine from cigarettes (RNZ).
• The rationale: National, ACT and NZ First framed it as reducing retail-crime risk, supporting dairies and small retailers, and recovering about $1 billion of forecast excise revenue; it was written into the coalition agreements.

Why it matters:

• Smoking is New Zealand's leading cause of preventable death and a major modifiable cause of cancers, including bowel cancer. Māori and Pacific smoking rates (18–20%) run about three times the European rate, so the repeal lands hardest on the communities with the worst smoking-related harm (ASPIRE).
• Public-health experts, Māori and Pacific health leaders and the Opposition strongly opposed it; modelling had projected the endgame measures would save thousands of lives and billions in health costs (ScienceDirect).

The politics:

Labour, the Greens and Te Pāti Māori opposed the repeal, and restoring smokefree measures is likely to be a 2026 election dividing line. Verdict: a deliberate reversal of a world-leading public-health policy — defended on cost and retail grounds, and condemned as a step back for Māori health and tobacco control.