Tim Dower: What the heck is the Associate Health Minister doing?

What the heck is the Associate Health Minister doing floating the idea of a freeze on cigarette tax increases? 

We know the ongoing hikes in tobacco excise duty have done the job, smoking is right down and only about 8% of us are now daily smokers. 

Tax has essentially priced us out of smoking, they're a couple of dollars a pop these days. 

Now, the coalition dropped a shocker on us with respect to smoking before Christmas, when it ditched that world-leading legislation which would have banned anyone born after 2008 from ever being able to buy tobacco. 

It also abandoned the move to cut the number of tobacco outlets and reduce nicotine content. 

All of those, you'd have hoped, would have helped create an environment in which, slowly but surely, New Zealand would evolve into a nation of non-smokers. 

And as I said at the time: what an achievement that would have been. 

Not that I have anything at all against smokers. It's a personal choice, but it costs you and there's no excuse for not knowing about the health risks.  

But I do know what it's like to be addicted to a harmful substance and the tortures of trying to get off nicotine. 

So, I feel strongly that if we can spare the next generation from that and everything else that goes with smoking, it's the right thing to do. 

So, back to the Associate Health Minister —Casey Costello— and her sniffing around for information that would support a three-year freeze on tobacco tax hikes. 

The job of the Health Ministry and of its Minister and Associate Ministers is to manage the health system, it's not meant to concern itself with taxation or excise duties. 

It gives the impression that the Associate Minister doesn't recognise the taxes are good for the nation's overall health. 

And worse, it gives the impression the Associate Minister cares more for the tobacco trade, than she does for health. 

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