Youth 'flashmob' Parliament to demonstrate commitment to Smokefree 2025
To celebrate YouthWeek 2016 students from Aotea College, Wellington East Girls College, Rongotai College and Waikato
Tairawhiti Kohanga Reo gathered at Parliament today, demonstrating their commitment to being smokefree. Government’s
commitment to making New Zealand a Smokefree nation by 2025 was made back in 2011. It’s now 2016 and government has
still not produced a plan for how New Zealand will achieve that goal.
“If our Government is serious about making our nation smokefree by 2025, it should quit stalling key measures such as
standardised packaging for tobacco, and come up with a national action plan. Why are we waiting?” said Smokefree
Coalition Executive Director Dr Prudence Stone.
“We invited youth to come demonstrate to Government what true commitment looks like because after five years, our
Government hasn't demonstrated enough.”
Around 4500 New Zealanders die every year from tobacco-related diseases. Around 300 of these deaths are caused by
second-hand smoke alone. Students who gathered at Parliament today lay down in silence to commemorate these deaths.
“Young people are the Smokefree Generation,” said Aotea College Head Girl Joyce Soudachanh.
“The ‘daily’ smoking rate among Year 10s in New Zealand is just 3 percent. It’s never been that low, and 14 used to be
the average age people took up smoking. But we’re not like generations before us. We’re smarter and the education around
the harms of smoking is very strong.
“But while we aren't smoking, our whanau smoke around us. We are still at risk. That’s why we support the goal to make
our nation smokefree.”
The percentage of Year 10s who have never smoked has increased every year since 2000. Now more than half of all Maori
Year 10s and over 80 percent of all non-Maori Year 10s have never tried a single puff.
The Smokefree Coalition believes further measures need to be taken to create incentives for quitting and to control and
reduce the supply of tobacco in New Zealand.
“When the Maori Affairs Select Committee held its Inquiry on the tobacco industry and the consequences of tobacco use
for Maori, it made 42 recommendations including a date for when the nation would become Smokefree,” said Dr Stone.
“Researchers at University of Otago School of Public Health Medicine found there was progress made on only a handful of
these recommendations. When so many lives are on the line every year, why does our Government drag its feet on tobacco
control?”
Ends