New Zealand’s Government Scrapping Generational Tobacco Ban (Update)

New Zealand’s landmark generational tobacco ban, one that banned anyone born after Jan. 1, 2009 from purchasing tobacco products, is set to be repealed.

Last month, the country held elections, which saw the National Party win more seats than any other party. The new coalition government, led by the National Party and New Zealand First, has announced that it plans to repeal the ban, which was passed in December 2022.

The revised Smokefree Environments and Regulated Products (Smoked Tobacco) Amendment Bill made it illegal to sell tobacco products to anyone born on or after Jan. 1, 2009. This was in addition to the country’s previous law, which banned anyone under the age of 18 from purchasing tobacco products. People that were 14-17-years-old would have been grandfathered in, but anyone born after 2008 would never have been able to legal purchase tobacco products in New Zealand. Given the timing, a repeal isn’t going to actively increase the number of people who could legally purchase tobacco as the new generational smoking ban wouldn’t have affected any potential new customers until 2027.

In addition, the law also restricted the number of retailers that could sell tobacco and vaping products and introduced nicotine limits for cigarettes. The new government plans to overturn these provisions by March 2024.

Update (Nov. 27, 2023) — Grant Ovenden of Canteros, a retailer based in Christchurch, New Zealand, has stated that—as of now—the tobacco licensing program is moving forward as planned.

“As of the 28th of November, 2023 we are as far away from reversing this as we are to be implementing it and the cigar & pipe aficionados are far from saved,” said Ovenden in an email/comment to halfwheel. “The Ministry of Health today have confirmed we still have to complete our ASTR (Approved Smoked Tobacco Retailer) licensing applications before this Sunday (December 2nd) and as far as they are concerned; the new 2022 Amendment Act will be fully enforced accordingly.”

Ovenden left open the possibility that the retailer licensing component—which will limit the number of places that can sell tobacco products to 500 locations—could be reversed early next year, but that is after at least one deadline.

“At the very least, the 2022 Amendment will not be revoked until March 2024 – around the same time the Ministry of Health are due to announce who out of the 6,000 outlets would get one of the 500 licenses on offer,” said Ovenden. “Lastly, the cigar and pipe aficionados of New Zealand continue to have their civil liberties impacted by the Ministry of Health’s “one law for all” and their ignorance of not separating out cigar and pipe smokers from their draconian legislation; whereas the Census (every 5 years) run by Statistic New Zealand for the New Zealand Government only determines a “smoker” as someone that smokes cigarettes on a regular basis. Cigar and pipe smokers who are not deemed “smokers” by the New Zealand Government are still controlled by the Smokefree 2025 Act sadly.”

While it will rollback various tobacco and vaping laws, the government plans on introducing new laws banning disposable vaping products and increasing the fines for those caught selling to anyone under the age of 18-years-old.

Hong Kong and the United Kingdom are currently planning generational tobacco bans of their own.