Abstract
Recent media reports suggest illicit tobacco supply is on the rise in Aotearoa New Zealand. This requires urgent and co-ordinated government action to avoid the same issues currently facing Australia, where an estimated 55% of the total tobacco market may be illicit sources. We also have the opportunity to learn from the new measures being rolled out in Australia to control this issue.
However, the Government of Aotearoa must not respond to illicit tobacco trade at the expense of sound tobacco control policy, given the tobacco industry’s common use of the threat of an illicit market as a tactic to weaken restrictions and to lobby for lowering tobacco taxation.
Although the current Government has a poor track record of supporting robust and effective tobacco control policy, learning from Australia and adopting the measures outlined in this article would represent a much-needed positive step.