Doctors on the frontline in the fight against smoking say the Government is consigning another generation of Māori and Pasifika to an early death. The response comes after the previous government's smokefree laws were recently repealed under urgency. 1News Māori affairs correspondent Te Aniwa Hurihanganui and Pacific correspondent Barbara Dreaver take a closer look.
"Over 400 Māori a year are diagnosed with lung cancer," says oncologist Dr George Laking.
"In pretty much every single case, that is down to smoking... That [legislation] was going to ease the path to smoking for so many people, but it's all gone now."
Labour's "world-first" smokefree laws were scrapped late last month by the coalition Government — with the now-cut changes planned to go into effect later this year, 2025 and 2027.
The rate of smoking has been declining since the start of the century from 25% to 8.3% in 2022, but Māori and Pasifika smoking rates remained the highest in the country.
A little more than 17% of Māori smoked. The rate was 6.4% for Pasifika and 6.1% for Pākehā.
Nearly one in four Māori died from smoking related illnesses.
Dr Sean Hanna, a GP in Porirua, said around 80% of his patients were Māori.
Significant nicotine addiction by the age of 18
"Almost every day and every other consultation I will see young people and older people who have loved one's impacted by tobacco smoking," he said.
"What I've noticed is multiple generations of whānau smoke and it's really hard to have conversations about personal choice when young people are having their first smoke at 11 or 12 years of age. By the time they're 18, they have a significant nicotine addiction."
Maurice Labert, a smokefree practitioner at Te Hiku Hauora in Kaitāia, couldn't fathom why the legislation has been scrapped when the need was so urgent.
"Why the hell would you do something like that? We spent years trying to get this legislation rolled out to make it safer, to make our jobs easier as practitioners," he said.
"It's hard enough to get Māori to come forward to have a chat about becoming smokefree. Having this legislation repealed basically gives Māori and all smokers permission to continue smoking."
Modelling for the now scrapped legislation found it would have reduced the smoking rate among Māori 20 years and over from around 31% to around 7% in 2025.
It was also predicted to save more than 3000 Māori lives by 2040.
Making a difference — 97% quitting
It's not just Māori affected, around one in seven deaths among Pacific people was due to smoking. Community programmes have been making a difference.
The Fono was one of six Pasifika services to receive anti-smoking funding and ran more than 30 support groups.
In its first year the 300 members had a success rate of 97% quits and now, in the second year, it was already exceeding that.
The Fono's public health manager Janet Masoe-Hundal said what made it a success was their Pasifika leaders have been able to access their own communities through kava groups, churches and youth.
1News Pacific Correspondent Barbara Dreaver takes a closer look. (Source: 1News)
She said knowing the language and cultural complexities had enabled them to reach those most in need but the Government's actions created uncertainty over future funding.
"To have that repeal, it's very disheartening for our communities because we are trying to save lives here," she said.
'I swore on my sister's grave'
Former smoker Ana Enosi knew all about that after losing her sister to cancer.
"She was also a smoker and she was always saying 'stop smoking stop smoking, look at me' and I never listened and the more she said the less I listened but when she passed away I swore on her grave so I went cold turkey, I stopped," she said.
Health Minister Shane Reti told 1News existing smokefree measures were working.
"Smokefree legislation currently in place remains, and has provided one of the biggest drops in smoking rates from 8.6% to 6.8%," he said.
"The Government remains absolutely committed to continuing to drive smoking rates down."
Associate Minister of Health Casey Costello was the Minister in charge of the Smokefree legislation repeal.
She recently said she was looking to "tighten up" regulations around vaping, among other measures.
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