NZ has plummeted from second in the world in 2023 to 53rd in the 2025 Global Tobacco Industry Interference Index. File photo. Photo: Unsplash / fotografierende
New Zealand has been labelled "most deteriorated" in an international study assessing the interference of the tobacco industry.
The country has plummeted from second in the world in 2023 to 53rd in the 2025 Global Tobacco Industry Interference Index.
The report, produced by the Global Center for Good Governance in Tobacco Control, has been released every two years since 2019 and now ranks 100 countries.
The main factors damaging New Zealand's standing are the repeal of the smokefree generation laws, the tax break benefiting tobacco giant Philip Morris and the movement of staff between politics and the lobbying industry.
Vape-Free Kids, an advocacy group, said the "staggering drop" of 51 places in two years was the most dramatic fall of any country in the history of the report and an "international disgrace" for the government.
"New Zealand has become an international embarrassment and an example of how quickly a government can be corrupted by the tobacco industry," Vape-Free Kids co-founder Charyl Robinson said.
But Associate Health Minister Casey Costello has labelled the index "ridiculous" saying what matters is rates of smoking not the "strange view, that what really matters is how much you criticise the tobacco industry".
Costello said New Zealand's smoking rate had more than halved since 2015 and was now 6.9 percent - one of the lowest in the world.
"I haven't seen this year's index, but the last one had Brunei at No.1 and France at No.3. Brunei's smoking rate is around 17 percent - well over double NZ's rate. In May, France's smoking rate was 23 percent - more than three times NZ's rate," she said. "That illustrates how ridiculous this index is."
In 2024 the government scrapped laws which would have slashed tobacco retailers from 6000 to 600, removed 95 percent of the nicotine from cigarettes and banned sales of cigarettes to anyone born after 2009.
Costello also cut the excise tax on Heated Tobacco Products (HTPs) by 50 percent, despite health officials saying there was no strong evidence they worked to stop smoking or were significantly safer than cigarettes.
Associate Health Minister Casey Costello. Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
The report lists New Zealand and Kazakhstan as two countries which cut taxes for HTPs and says Ecuador, Georgia, Madagascar, Türkiye and Uganda also offered tax breaks to the tobacco industry.
"Tax increases are among the most effective tobacco control measures, yet more than 60 countries, often due to industry influence, did not raise taxes, delayed implementation of tax increases (or) lowered tax rates."
Costello cut tax on HTPs to encourage smokers to switch to a safer alternative.
Treasury officials, however, told her the tax break would largely benefit Philip Morris, as they held a monopoly on the product in New Zealand.
Labour leader Chris Hipkins told the RNZ interview show 30 with Guyon Espiner that Labour would repeal the tobacco tax cuts.
"That was a tax break to the tobacco companies on the basis of some very, very questionable advice that isn't going to be better for New Zealand's health as a country," he said. "It's one tobacco company that, by and large, has got the vast bulk of the benefit from that, and that is going to change."
The Global Tobacco Industry Interference Index report is also critical of New Zealand's unregulated lobbying industry and links between the tobacco industry and decision makers.
"In New Zealand, there is no requirement for the TI (tobacco industry) and affiliated entities to register with the government, and it is unclear how the relationship between the TI and the government is moderated."
Two corporate communication staff at Philip Morris previously held senior roles with NZ First.
RNZ has also reported on a leaked document from tobacco giant Philip Morris which said the company should target political parties, including NZ First and the Māori Party, to win favourable regulation for HTPs.
Uruguay, Maldives and Palau were the most improved countries in the index and New Zealand the most deteriorated.
"New Zealand recorded the most deterioration in industry interference. Besides repealing strong tobacco control policies, citing industry arguments as rationale, the current government implemented several TI-friendly policies," the report says.
The section of the report focusing on New Zealand was written by the New Zealand Cancer Society and looked at policy making between March 2023 and March 2025.
Cancer Society head of advocacy and public affairs Rachael Neumann said "a number of revolving-door connections" between the government and the industry contributed to New Zealand's decline.
"This report has found that New Zealand's score has significantly dropped since the 2023 report, and that there has been an increase in tobacco industry interference in New Zealand during this time."
Neumann said there was a "high level of industry participation" in New Zealand's tobacco policy development and "a whole range of unnecessary interactions" between the government and the tobacco industry.
"Every year, even now, 5000 people die from tobacco and tobacco related diseases," she said. "We really know that tobacco industry interference and repeal of these laws leads to more smoking, more addiction, and we're deeply concerned because this leads to more cancer."
But Costello said protections against tobacco industry interference had not weakened in the past two years and New Zealand continued to be guided by international protocols on how officials engaged with the industry.
She said the tobacco industry had no involvement in the government's smokefree and health policies.
"I would have thought that the Cancer Society would actually care about reducing smoking and reducing cancer," she said. "Instead, they've brought into a very strange view, that what really matters is how much you criticise the tobacco industry."
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