How smoking ended NZ First minister Casey Costello’s father’s life

NZ First minister Casey Costello said her father's passing in 2018 informs her passion to reduce the number of Kiwi smokers. Photo / Mike Scott

When minister Casey Costello contemplates how she will achieve Smokefree 2025, she recalls her father.

John Costello, who died in 2018, had worked as a journalist for most of his life, fashioning a career in newsrooms clouded in cigarette smoke and contributing to a smoking habit maintained for more than 50 years.

Costello described her father as a “stubborn” smoker and she believed it was a mindset she would need to address as she led the Government’s smoking reform and progress towards the long-held goal to reduce the number of Kiwis smoking to 5% of the population by the end of 2025.

“Dad was one of these ones [who said], ‘I’m not going to be told what to do’,” Costello told the Herald.

“It’s shifting that mentality, that it’s actually your quality of life. It’s those sorts of things that shifted Dad’s mentality.”

Associate Minister of Health and NZ First MP Casey Costello with her late father John Costello, who died in 2018. Photo / Supplied

By the time he passed away at age 81, John’s quality of life had degraded significantly. While he avoided cancer, decades of smoking had left him barely able to walk due to blood circulation issues.

He was at serious risk of a stroke and relied on an oxygen tank for the last few years of his life. John’s passion for watching horse racing was limited to the lounge in front of the television.

“That’s the part that I think people miss amongst all this, it’s the diabetes and the loss of circulation and all of those sort of things ... just the horrible slow, debilitating life that it gives you.”

As his body failed him, John was fortunate to retain his mind. In his final days, Costello said her father dictated what would be his last 1300-word column for the now-closed racing publication, The Informant, while in Middlemore Hospital in Auckland. John was able to read his copy in print in the morning before his passing that evening.

Costello, who was asthmatic as a child, said she had always “hated” smoking. The customary attempt at a puff in her younger years was enough to ward her off cigarettes, later reinforced as members of her whānau died from smoking-related illnesses.

“It wasn’t until later in life when you start losing family and start realising how horrible it is.”

Associate Minister of Health and NZ First MP Casey Costello with her late father John Costello, who died in 2018. Photo / Supplied

Now, as Associate Health Minister and an NZ First MP in Parliament, Costello was responsible for the country’s smoking regulations and had led the repeal of the previous Labour Government’s “smokefree generation” legislation that was, at the time, welcomed as world-leading.

The repeal and the party’s links to members within the tobacco industry had led to Costello copping criticism from public health officials and Opposition politicians, who alleged Costello was working on behalf of tobacco companies.

The allegations partially spawned from Philip Morris external relations director Api Dawson - a former NZ First staffer - attending NZ First minister Shane Jones’ swearing-in ceremony last year. Jones had said Dawson was involved in “soundings” about the party’s tobacco policy, which informed the current Government’s policies Costello was now charged with implementing.

Costello was also found to have acted “contrary to the law” by the Chief Ombudsman after refusing to release advice given to health officials by her office that claimed “nicotine is as harmful as caffeine” and described the previous Government’s smokefree legislation as “ideological nonsense”.

Costello, who initially denied the specific document existed, said she did not know who wrote the document but was forced to apologise for not releasing it.

No evidence of formal links between Costello and members of the tobacco industry had emerged. Costello had repeatedly denied any contact with industry players.

Costello admitted the persistent targeting had made her angry, given the lack of evidence and her personal views on smoking.

“I think what I got angry about was the fact that it was this implication that somehow, I was defending the industry and I find it abhorrent.

“This was important to me because it means something to get people to quit smoking.

“It did make me angry because it was distracting from really important conversations ... suddenly it all became about leaked documents and it was just total distractions.”

In February, the Ministry of Health said a staffer who allegedly leaked a document showing Costello had asked for advice on freezing the annual increase in tobacco tax was no longer employed by the ministry.

Associate Health Minister Casey Costello has repeatedly rebuffed claims she had links to the tobacco industry. Photo / Mark Mitchell

She believed the attention drew focus away from viable solutions to helping people quit smoking.

“This isn’t about me, this is about getting people to stop smoking and I’ll take the hit as long as we can get people to stop smoking.”

One measure Costello supported was promoting heated tobacco products as a cessation tool by cutting their excise tax. Costello maintained the products were less harmful than cigarettes, a claim contested by Labour’s health spokeswoman Dr Ayesha Verrall and some public health experts.

The move received some criticism as new product regulations, which came into force on October 1, meant most of the available products could no longer be sold.

Costello believed the market would “pivot” and create compliant products “if there was a market”.

However, she said there was a second tranche of work underway looking at “other less harmful products that might be available”.

Adam Pearse is a political reporter in the NZ Herald Press Gallery team, based at Parliament. He has worked for NZME since 2018, covering sport and health for the Northern Advocate in Whangārei before moving to the NZ Herald in Auckland, covering Covid-19 and crime.