Labour is launching a members’ bill to stop the Government from putting tobacco industry interests ahead of public health.

“The Tobacco Transparency Bill will strengthen the law surrounding tobacco industry lobbying, to ensure tobacco profits are never put ahead of New Zealander’s health,” Labour health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall said.

“This Bill aims to prohibit government support for the tobacco industry and requires transparency around tobacco lobbying.

“Around the world, tobacco companies have a long history of influencing and weakening health policies to better suit their bottom line.

“This Bill will address those influences, and help us protect people’s health by meeting the obligations we’ve signed up to under the World Health Organisation’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.

“One of those obligations is to protect tobacco policy from ‘commercial and vested interests of the tobacco industry’.

“New Zealand’s 2025 smokefree goal is at risk and we need to be doing everything we can to meet it, to save lives, and keep people healthy and out of hospital.

“Our world-leading smokefree laws were scrapped by the National Government and smoking rates in New Zealand have risen for the first time in over a decade.

“It’s time we get rid of the smokescreen and protect Kiwis from big tobacco’s lobbying tactics – they have no place in health policy,” Ayesha Verrall said.