10 year Smokefree Environments Anniversary – is it a reason for Māori to celebrate too?
Today Māori throughout New Zealand will be listening to news on the countries 10th Anniversary of Smokefree Bars and
Clubs, while they are listening there is also a high chance that they will also be wondering why they haven’t stopped
their own smoking, or why their aunty, cousin, son, daughter, grandfather is still smoking despite so called leading
Smokefree initiatives and a goal of a Smokefree country by 2025.
Māori regular smoking rates dropped by about 10% (from 42.2% to 32.7%) between 2006 and 2013 according to Census 2013
data. On the face of it this looks good for Māori, but that’s still more than double the New Zealand non-Māori rate of
15%.
Te Runanga o Ngāti Whatua Public Health Unit Manager Antony Thompson states that “smoking rates amongst the general
population have declined at a faster rate than that of Māori rates, this means inequalities have actually widened in
regards to Māori and smoking”.
He wonders why there are not more people looking at new measures that could support reducing these inequalities. “We
have had some great initiatives that have worked for non-Māori, but not for Māori. Not allowing smoking in bars and
clubs was one that worked well for Non-Maori. Let’s start focusing on initiatives that will also benefit Māori. If we do
this as a nation then we will be much more likely to hit 2025 together”.
It seems it’s time for all of us to get brave and support a shift in current tobacco control campaigns to initiatives
that will stop our whānau -aunties, uncles, son, daughter, grandfather from smoking. It seems that tobacco has continued
to invade every nook, every crevice and every cranny of te iwi Māori. It’s going to take a lot of collective action, and
a new mind set for many to change the current state of play. In 2025, 10 years from now if the focus was shifted we all
just might be enjoying Smokefree New Zealand celebrations.
ends