Smokefree Aotearoa Plan 2025 launched

Guided by the principles of Te Tiriti o Waitangi, the action plan will support Aotearoa’s goal of becoming smokefree by 2025. A bill is to be introduced in June next year, aiming to be passed by December.

The six focus areas:

• Making sure there is Māori leadership and decision-making across all levels of the action plan. A taskforce will make sure the action plan is on track to achieve the smokefree goal for Māori.
• Funding more health promotion and community activities to motivate and mobilise people  to get behind the smokefree goal.
• Giving people the wrap-around support they need on their quit journey by investing in more tailored help such as a stop smoking service for Pacific communities.
• Making it easier to quit and harder to become addicted by only having low-level nicotine smoked tobacco products for sale and restricting product design features that increase their appeal and addictiveness.
• Making smoked tobacco products harder to buy by reducing the number of shops selling them to kickstart a smokefree generation.
• Making sure the tobacco industry and retailers follow the law.

Read more: Smokefree Aotearoa 2025 Action Plan – Auahi Kore Aotearoa Mahere Rautaki 2025.

Key outcomes sought: Eliminating inequities in smoking rates and smoking-related illnesses; preventing young people from ever talking up smoking in the first place; and increasing the number of people who quit smoking.

Read article in the NZ Herald