Cigarette taxes likely to rise, says Minister

Press, 6 February 1986, Page 3

Cigarette taxes likely to rise, says Minister

PA Wellington Taxes on cigarettes are likely to be boosted in this year’s Budget, the Minister of Health, Dr Bassett, said yesterday. He was commenting on a McNair Prime Prospect survey which showed an 11 per cent increase in the number of teen-age smokers. Dr Murray Laugesen, of the Health Department’s Health Promotion Division, suggested that increased taxation would definitely discourage many more children from smoking, as overseas research showed they reduced smoking when the price of cigarettes went up. Dr Bassett said yesterday that all taxes were considered at Budget time each year and that it was likely cigarette taxes would be increased this year.

He pointed to substantial rises in cigarette taxes and subsequent price rises in 1984. The number of young people smoking had for many years been disturbing. Dr Bassett said that if anything, the McNair survey showed things were getting worse. “It seems that while the message of promoting non-smoking as a positive lifestyle is continuing to get through to the more mature age-groups, extra work needs to be done with young people.” It was clear there needed to be more persuasive work through an expanded Health Department programme, although the department was always involved in trying to reduce the number of New Zealanders smoking. The Government has spent $lOO,OOO this financial year in promoting

anti-smoking and would be throwing its weight behind the Great New Zealand Smoke-Free Week in June. Under an agreement with the tobacco industry, the advertising of smoking to young people had been banned. The Action on Smoking and Health (Ash) group, said smoking was endemic among teenagers. A spokesman, Ms Deirdre Kent, said the figures were “appalling.” Meanwhile, a tobacco industry representative has hit out at calls for higher taxation on cigarettes to discourage young people from smoking. The Tobacco Institute’s executive director, Mr Michael Thompson, found it “incredible” that a public servant acting as a departmental spokesman should call for a punitive tax increase on a consumer product.