The Associate Health Minister says she has a more realistic ambition than having New Zealand "smokefree" — instead aiming to have less than 5% of Kiwis indulging in the habit.
As part of this, Costello told Breakfast this morning she would "tighten up" regulations around vaping.
Labour's "world-first" Smokefree laws have gone up in smoke under urgency in parliament, the Government announced yesterday.
None of the Smokefree 2025 measures by the previous government being repealed were currently in place, as the changes were planned to go into effect later this year, 2025 and 2027.
Most Kiwis did not want the legislation to be removed, according to a 1News Verian Poll from earlier this month. Many health experts were also unhappy with the changes.
However, Associate Health Minister Casey Costello says she has her own plan for Smokefree 2025 and 1News understands this will be revealed in the next fortnight.
'Really practical' solutions
Costello told Breakfast this morning Smokefree was "never meant to be zero" and her plan would result in fewer than 5% of Kiwis smoking. She said she also wanted to tighten up vaping regulations and to provide the best tools for smokers to quit.
"The first stage would be repealing the legislation which is currently in place," she said, stating this would clear a pathway for some "really practical" solutions.
"We've achieved great results doing what we're doing now, we just don't support an unproven trial and we're going to implement tighter vaping controls.
"We tried to ban disposables. There was already a work around before that was introduced in December. One of the things we have to do is tightening up on that.
"We're now dealing with addicted nicotine smokers, there's less than 300,000 smokers who have been smoking for a long time and, as much as we'd like to think it, reducing supply does not reduce demand."
Costello told 1News yesterday: "The last government was moving towards an untested regime that ignored how well quit smoking initiatives were working, and the potential downside of taking a prohibitionist approach for smokers, or for retailers and crime.
"The progress New Zealand has made in reducing smoking means that those who currently smoke are mostly long-term smokers who are addicted to nicotine and that’s who we need to focus on. We want an approach that is practical and helps smokers to quit, rather than one based on ideology," she said.
'Smoking is not morally acceptable' - Hipkins
Also speaking to Breakfast this morning, Labour leader Chris Hipkins said: "The difference between me and Casey Costello is that I don't believe young New Zealanders should be taking up smoking and I don't believe we should be making it easier for them to do so.
"She does seem to think that making it easier for them to take up smoking is a morally acceptable thing for government to do, I think she's wrong."
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