Chris Bullen: Health Coalition Aotearoa Spokesperson on the Talbot Mills survey into tobacco and nicotine regulation

Most New Zealanders think the tobacco industry is influencing government policy. 

A Talbot Mills survey —commissioned by public health group Health Coalition Aotearoa— has found more than two thirds of respondents think the industry is influencing policy. 

55% of respondents support reintroducing low-nicotine cigarettes. 

Health Coalition Aotearoa Spokesperson Chris Bullen told Ryan Bridge that while all industries want policies oriented towards them, the tobacco industry has a long history, all around the world, of behaving in particularly bad ways. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
A Talbet Mills smoking survey out this morning. Just over
a thousand people, two thirds of them reckon our smoking
laws are influenced by big tobacco. They want to see
a return to low nicotine cigarettes. Half want a ban
on nicotine pouches. Professor Chris Bullen, Orkin University, Professor of
Public Health, Health Coalition Altada. Health Coalition ALTA is a

(00:21):
by their definition, a titidity led coalition of health NGOs.
Winston Peters has previously labeled them left wing. Professor Chris
Bullen joins me this morning, Good morning, good morning, how
are you very well? Thank you? So the survey saying
that the policy has influenced by big tobacco is the
is the I mean, could you say that of any industry?

Speaker 2 (00:44):
For sure, all industries are policies orientated towards them. I
think the big difference here as we've got a long
history of dealing with the tobacco industry all around the world,
and they behave in particularly bad ways. So their products
are incredibly harmful. That's well known. So why should a
government that seems to be interested in the health and

(01:08):
well being of all New Zealanders they give access to
these this kind of industry to influence their policy in
a way that will lead to harm.

Speaker 1 (01:18):
Has it led to more harm? Are we seeing more
harm today than we were two years ago from tobacco products?

Speaker 2 (01:27):
Well, I think the answer is that we're stalled with smoking.
Smoking being the most harmful tobacco product out there. The
prevalence of smoking should have been lower than it is
if the government had held to the previous settings policy settings.
But when the coalition government came in, one of the

(01:48):
bottom lines for us in the first was to repeal
the smoke free legislation, which modeling suggested would have dramatically
reduced smoking below five percent in a few years. So
that will to we believe, around an additional eight thousand
people dying from smoking related diseases over the next twenty years,
and it could be prevented through appropriate policies.

Speaker 1 (02:09):
That's only in the legal market, right and if you
look at Australia where they have between fifty and sixty
percent of all tobacco and nearly all vaping products in
Australia right now are from criminal suppliers according to Deacon University.
So yes, you might be able to do what you
say you want to do with legal products, but it

(02:30):
won't stop the clearly stubborn six point eight percent of
New Zealanders who want to smoke a durry.

Speaker 2 (02:38):
Well, we don't have the same issue with illegal tobacco
because of our regulated vaping market and because the set
policy settings have actually been I think more more sensible here.
But we do need to be very careful because things
could turn suddenly in the wrong direction. However, the monitoring

(03:01):
that the Mystery of Health has been supporting in trying
to assess the size of the illicit market doesn't suggest
that the problem here is as bad as it is
in Australia by any stretch.

Speaker 1 (03:12):
Okay, I appreciate your time this morning, your analysis Professor
Cris Ball and Auckland University Professor Public Health Coalition our
tat art.

Speaker 2 (03:19):
For more from early edition with Ryan Bridge. Listen live
to News Talks it'd be from five am weekdays, or
follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.