Prime Minister John Key says it would be ``a huge ask'' to achieve a smokefree New Zealand by 2025 -- a goal that is set in a parliamentary report to be released today.
The Maori affairs select committee has held an inquiry into the tobacco industry, hearing hundreds of submissions over the last few months.
Its report is understood to set the smokefree goal and recommend tobacco displays in shops be banned, cigarettes and loose tobacco sold in plain packaging and a ban on smoking in cars and public places.
It will also ask the Government to cut down the amount of tobacco imported into New Zealand and suggest tobacco companies should pay for addiction treatment like nicotine patches.
The recommendations are not binding on the Government, and Mr Key was cautious when reporters asked him about it.
``It would be extremely difficult,'' he said in response to questions about making New Zealand smokefree by 2025.
``The good news is less people are smoking and there is greater awareness of the damage that you can do to your health.''
The Government has already increased the price of tobacco since the last election, and more price rises are in the pipeline.
``We know that young people particularly are more likely to be put off smoking if the price of cigarettes rises,'' Mr Key said.
The Government was worried about young people smoking, he said, and that was why the price had been increased.
``Nothing that you do is more predictable to cause damage to your health than smoking,'' he said.
The anti-smoking lobby group Action on Smoking and Health (Ash) said it was delighted with the select committee's recommendations.
``We've known tobacco kills for 50 years,'' said Ash director Ben Youdan.
``Despite this we've sat by and let a tobacco industry aggressively promote this addictive and deadly drug for decades.''
He said the report clearly identified the problem as the tobacco companies.
``It sets out clear steps to kick them and their drug out of New Zealand,'' he said.
Te Reo Marama spokesman Shane Kawenata Bradbrook applauded the committee's recommendations.
``This historic process was always about holding the tobacco industry accountable for all the deaths and the illness they cause within the Maori community.
``The leadership shown by the committee should be commended for acknowledging the pain, suffering and death that tobacco has placed on the Maori community.''
Mr Bradbrook acknowledged smoking affected everyone and was an ``equal opportunity killer''.
The measures recommended by the committee would place New Zealand internationally as the premier country in the fight against the global tobacco epidemic, he said.
AdvertisementAdvertise with NZME.
Latest from Hawkes Bay Today
Ram raid at supermarket in Haumoana, coastal Hawke's Bay
Glass was left smashed on the ground outside after the supermarket was raided.