Still No Tobacco Standardised Packaging Regulations

Imperial Tobacco New Zealand wants to know why the Government still hasn’t released Regulations to implement standardised packaging of tobacco.

Parliament passed the Bill for tobacco products for standardised packaging in September 2016, but Regulations that set out exactly how and when the measure will be implemented still haven’t been released.

Head of Corporate and Legal Affairs for Imperial Tobacco New Zealand, Louise Evans McDonald, says Imperial and tobacco retailers are becoming increasingly frustrated with the delay.

"While we have made our objection to standardised packaging known, we will obviously need to comply with the new law. That is going to be extremely difficult to do if the Government won’t tell us exactly what the new law is.

"Retailers have joined us in calling for at least 12 months lead time until implementation – but that has clearly fallen on deaf ears. The legislation says that we must have standardised packaging in March next year, which is now less than 10 months away.

"We need to see the Regulations immediately so that we can source and prepare packaging materials ready to meet the deadline. If we don’t know what those materials must contain because we don’t have Regualtions, then exactly what is the Government going to expect of us and, importantly, of retailers?"

ENDS

Timeline of key dates:

31 May 2016 – Exposure draft of regulations for consultation

30 June 2016 – Bill’s second reading

8 September 2016 – Bill’s third reading

14 September 2016 – Bill received Royal assent

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