Scoop has an Ethical Paywall
Work smarter with a Pro licence Learn More

Gordon Campbell | Parliament TV | Parliament Today | News Video | Crime | Employers | Housing | Immigration | Legal | Local Govt. | Maori | Welfare | Unions | Youth | Search

 

Researchers to propose new Smokefree 2025 action plan

Researchers to propose new Smokefree 2025 action plan in light of Government no show

Achieving a Smokefree Aotearoa Project media release, 30 May 2017

A group of New Zealand researchers is preparing a new evidence-based action plan to reduce smoking rates in New Zealand because it says the goal of a smokefree Aotearoa by 2025 is unlikely to be achieved – and a promised Government action plan has not been produced.

“The Government promised an action plan for Smokefree 2025 two years ago, but this has not appeared. It is time for someone to act to ensure our legacy to coming generations will be a smokefree future instead of continued death and disease due to tobacco smoking,” says Achieving a Smokefree Aotearoa Project (ASAP) principal investigator Professor Richard Edwards from the Department of Public Health, University of Otago, Wellington.

He said that despite Associate Minister for Health Peter Dunne’s, statement in July 2015 that a comprehensive action plan would be developed, nothing has been forthcoming. In fact he said the Ministry of Health has now confirmed that publication of any action plan will not happen soon and, he noted, no timetable has been issued for its development or release.

The group backs former Prime Minister Helen Clark’s call for a concerted cross-party effort to prioritise the Smokefree 2025 goal, develop a comprehensive action plan and implement robust interventions to reduce smoking in order to put the country back on track to achieve the goal – particularly for Maori and Pacific communities.

Advertisement - scroll to continue reading

Are you getting our free newsletter?

Subscribe to Scoop’s 'The Catch Up' our free weekly newsletter sent to your inbox every Monday with stories from across our network.

“New Zealand once led the world in getting rid of tobacco advertising and sponsorship, making pubs and bars smokefree and adopting a Government supported goal to reduce smoking to minimal levels,” Edwards says.

“However, we have since been overtaken, as other countries like Scotland with similar goals to drastically reduce smoking have developed the comprehensive action plans we can't seem to come up with. Other jurisdictions around the world have also moved ahead of New Zealand in areas like plain packaging, enhanced pictorial health warnings, smokefree cars, mass media campaigns, controlling additives in cigarettes and reducing the supply of tobacco products.”

Edwards says trends in smoking prevalence from recent national survey data and subsequent modelling work suggests that the goal of reducing prevalence to below 5 percent by 2025 is not on track, and will be missed by a wide margin for Maori and Pacific peoples. Mid-term targets of halving daily smoking prevalence among Maori and Pacific peoples are nowhere near being met according to the most recent New Zealand Health Survey data.

Zoe Hawke of Hapai Te Hauora, the national tobacco control advocacy service, says World No-Smoking Day (31 May) is a good time to take stock of where we are with the Smokefree Aotearoa 2025 goal.

“There are still well more than half a million smokers in New Zealand. Over a fifth of young people (almost two fifths among Maori) continue to reach adulthood as smokers. Several thousand people, including hundreds of Maori and Pacific people, still die every year from smoking-related disease and will continue to do so long into the future unless the goal is achieved.

“We believe the research group’s new action plan will provide some desperately needed new ideas, create greater momentum and engagement, and provide a clear direction for how to achieve this critically important public health goal.”

The research group’s action plan, which is being developed in consultation with New Zealand smokefree leaders, practitioners and organisations, will be launched in the near future.

ENDS


© Scoop Media

Advertisement - scroll to continue reading
 
 
 
Parliament Headlines | Politics Headlines | Regional Headlines

 
 
 
 
 
 

LATEST HEADLINES

  • PARLIAMENT
  • POLITICS
  • REGIONAL
 
 

InfoPages News Channels


 
 
 
 

Join Our Free Newsletter

Subscribe to Scoop’s 'The Catch Up' our free weekly newsletter sent to your inbox every Monday with stories from across our network.