Abstract
The recent repeal of a key law to reduce the enormous health and economic burden from tobacco in Aotearoa NZ is a health, health equity, and economic tragedy. It occurred despite evidence of strong support for the key measures among the public.
To provide political context for NZ smokefree policies, we examined the Parliamentary voting record on 10 relevant laws since 2003. The Labour Party, the Greens and Te Pāti Māori voted consistently in support of progressive smokefree legislation. The National Party voted in favour of progressive smokefree legislation most (70%) of the time, including throughout 2010-2020 when inside and outside of government. However, National failed to support two key laws in 2003 and 2022 (despite appearing to support part of the 2022 Bill) and now is part of the Coalition Government that in 2024 repealed the 2022 smokefree legislation. The NZ First Party and ACT Party generally voted against smokefree policies (ie, NZ First voting for progressive legislation on only 2 of 7 occasions and ACT on only 2 of 9 occasions). A potential implication of these findings is that various parties could form cross-party agreements to ensure greater continuity and resilience of progressive smokefree policies.