VIANZ is extremely concerned announcements by the Ministry of Health and the Labour Party over the last 24-hours have the real potential to derail Aotearoa’s smokefree ambitions while causing widespread job losses and business closures. VIANZ has always been supportive of measures undertaken by Government to protect young people from vaping. But to put the entire future of an industry at risk in an attempt to score political points after polling disastrously in the build up to the election is completely unacceptable.

The election announcement by the Prime Minister this morning to reduce the number of vaping outlets to 600, appears to simply be an arbitrary number not determined by evidence or based on science but simply ‘picked’ because it’s the same number of outlets Government chose to sell cigarettes.

Vaping products must be readily accessible to support smokers to switch and remain smoke free. Smokers have been, and are still, able to purchase cigarettes from over 8,000 outlets nationwide. In 2024, the dramatic reduction in availability of cigarettes presents New Zealand with the opportunity to convert remaining smokers to a substantially safer alternative. Specialist Vape Retailers (SVRs) are the best places for smokers to be educated on how to quit successfully. We believe these numbers should not be restricted during the critical transition period which will see tobacco outlets decrease from 8,000 to 600.

Reducing accessibility to vaping will simply drive smokers to black market cigarettes which will no doubt become readily available from criminal organisations as these new restrictions are rolled out. And as we can see from our neighbours in Australia, an illicit market has resulted in even higher levels of youth vaping (>30%) than we have in Aotearoa.

The fact that young people are not regularly buying vaping products from a retailer means it is unlikely this extreme approach to reducing outlets will have any impact on our youth vaping numbers. Evidence from the recent ASH 2021 Year 10 Survey found only 7.6% of young people source their products from a vape shop, dairy or online. The survey showed more than 75% of students access their vaping products from social sources, either friends, older people, or family, a statistic that aligns with international data including Australia.

Concerningly, the proposed changes will certainly have a negative impact on legitimate adult vapers seeking to access the most effective tool to help them quit smoking – and with 5,000 New Zealanders dying every year as a result of tobacco this is a complete travesty.

VIANZ has repeatedly asked to speak to the Government on the issue of youth vaping. We want to help Government understand more fully the social fabric that is facilitating and driving our young people’s access to vaping products, and work together to address this. Disappointingly, rather than take an evidence-based approach the Prime Minister has chosen to put the jobs of thousands of Kiwis at risk with an announcement unsupported by evidence and with no surety of a positive outcome.

VIANZ has repeatedly asked for stronger steps to be taken by Government to protect our rangatahi. We have expressed concern over the continued lack of enforcement by authorities who appear to have ‘bulk issued’ licences and are allowing the ‘store-within-a-store’ model to proliferate. Rather than enforcing the regulations the Government has continued to issue licences to retailers that do not meet the requirements of the regulations, and rather than take responsibility for its failure to take action (which is symptomatic of this Government), it is trying to use the industry as a political football to score points.

We have continually asked authorities to introduce far heavier penalties for businesses that sell to minors and aren’t adhering to the regulations, with a loss of licence for repeat offenders. So, if there was to be a silver lining in today’s announcement, we are pleased the Government has finally taken action on this point.

© Scoop Media