Smokefree laws: PM Christopher Luxon admits he got claim about Northland tobacco stores wrong
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon says he wasn’t trying to mislead the public when claiming Labour’s smokefree laws would see just one store in Northland selling tobacco despite the true figure being 35.
In defending the new Government’s decision to scrap Labour’s smokefree policies Luxon this week said that plan would have seen only one store being able to sell tobacco products in all of Northland and it would become a target for crime.
Official documents published by the director-general of health stated there would instead be 35, including 17 in town and city centres and 18 in rural areas.
“We think it’s wrong, for example, to have a single store in Northland as a target for crime and ram raids, and for gangs and to ultimately drive into a bigger black market,” Luxon said during the post-Cabinet press conference last Wednesday.
Leader of the House and senior minister Chris Bishop then repeated the line this morning in an interview with Jack Tame on TVNZ’s Q+A, despite Tame pointing out multiple times that official documents stated there would be 35.
“There’d be one store in Northland, that’s my understanding, yes,” said Bishop.
Jack Tame doing what Jack Tame does best – well researched current affairs that destroys a politician.
The ZB talking points National have played with here to try and deflect attention from their appalling Tobacco deaths for tax cuts, is the exact same pre-mediated spin lines they used when selling their $250 per fortnight tax cut which was found to be only going to 3000 households.
In this Tobacco case and the Tac Cut example, they have specifically chosen language that misleads voters.
There isn’t just 1 tobacconist in Northland, there will be 35!
Q+A exposed this, and it is just further evidence of how dreadful this Government is, and just how quickly the wheels are coming off this awful threesome.
Already National voters are expressing regret!
Smoking kills 67% of users, any other product that killed 67% of users wouldn’t be allowed!
The Tobacco industry sell an addictive poison and as such aren’t just a normal member of the market, they are part of Industries that require the jackboot of the State on their throats constantly so that they can receive extra tax to pay for the social damage they cause.
Gambling, Tobacco, Booze, Prostitution – we allow these products to be legal because if they were illegal it would only feed organised crime. We appreciate the social damage they cause so the regulations are far more stringent.
The global media shock at this new Hard Right Racist Government allowing Tobacco deaths for tax cuts has damaged our global standing.
Hone Harawira is 100% when he criticises the appalling decision to allow tax cuts for tobacco deaths…
Former Te Tai Tokerau MP Hone Harawira, a member of Hāpai te Hauora Smokefree Taskforce, said Māori would die from the changes.
“They’re happy to let Māori die so that they can get more money for tax cuts for their rich friends,” he told 1News.
“That’s the horrifying thing, that they are so naked in their charge for cash.”
…that the new Government would willingly support legislation that sees more Māori die so they can raise taxes is an obscenity!
Excellent Public Interest Journalism Fund journalism by Jack!
The media are not bribed, they are just well researched and Politicians lie!
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Benson and Hedges Bishop the bullshitter.
Mudguard Luxon – Shiny on top – shitty underneath calls himself a Christian – Bloody Liar.
He talks about Northland like an different third world country or something?
Yes, interesting how he just happened to pick on Northland to make a point, and with incorrect figures to reinforce the lie.
Yes….’The Coalition of Chaos’ are living up to their reputation nicely…and they’ve only been in power barely a week!!!
He couldn’t even explain where he got his figures, or should i say, figure, from …
He’s hopeless…but we already knew that!
This was their cornerstone policy to pay for the useless tax cuts idea once their other useless unworkable idea of allowing foreign buyers to buy up the majority of houses in Auckland and Queenstown was scuppered.
Their figures on that policy didn’t stack up either ….but hey …what does it matter?? We say it’s right so it must be .
Yeah right!!
They are, and will continue to be, a useless, hopeless, inept, lying, government , trained by Key, Joyce and English.
….but we already knew that !!
Luxon complains that tobacco shops would be ram raid targets yet can not understand that a reduction in people smoking would reduce the demand for tobacco so less profit for criminals from any ram raids. He has also failed to notice that ram raids have already almost stopped as police get better intelligence on those involved, he is probably going to wait a month then claim that he stopped the raids.
The same Jack Tame who never, ever, questioned the lies of Ardern, Hipkins, Jackson of Mahuta. Thanks for your service Jack!
Sour Grapes!! During Keys régime he was never challenged and media was his cheerleader, even asking his opinion on frequent occasions during the last Labour government. Jack Tame will likely get sacked, similar to John Campbell during the Key regime, but in the meantime he can expose the litany of lies that NACTNZF will produce over the coming months.
Lousy deflection. Take it like man, they got caught out talking rubbish once again. Don’t give us some opinion on Jack Tame.
What a load of crap!!!…you’ve clearly forgotten the interview when Jack Tame became obsessed, to the point of weirdness, by what he believed Jacinda Ardern had said to some one in the ‘Green Room’ that was supposedly, in his mind, inappropriate, and kept on and on and on to for the rest of the interview to try and prove, or justify , that his suspicions were correct.
If you are going to make comments you have to make damn sure you know what you are talking about and have evidence to prove your point…otherwise, as National are demonstrating with consummate ease, on a daily basis.. lying very rapidly equals irrelevancy!!
So your reply is just another opinion on Jake Tame. How about Luxon and co make damn sure they know what they are talking about. Either they did it on purpose or they didn’t know what they were talking about, clearly
Totally agree!…either they are lying ,or, they are incompetent…hopelessly hopeless!!
I think Luxon is actually worse than Todd Muller or Jenny Shipley….. and they set the very very very lowest of bars.
What is clear, is that he doesn’t know anything outside of corporate jargon talk….that will take him about 10metres down the road of the marathon task of running a country.
I shudder to think how he would cope if another pandemic broke out.
We need another election..pronto!!
God defend New Zealand….he’s going to have to… because we are in uncharted territory here.!!
Never a lie so blatant as this Graeme. Ffs what’s next? What unsupported fiction will this govt use next to prop up their promises?
Nice,, our care is showing, that the abert nats are, disfunctional, and, unaware that social care humans live in Aotearoa/New Zealand.
Baby Gerry, how your first week. We are going to make the best of a breeze, before your square headed dominance rules. Hello, welcome to the truth of Governance.
The media must have missed a word in Luxon’s claim about reducing smoking, it should say “we are committed to reducing smoking rates naturally” in that he knows that eventually smokers die so that will stop them smoking.
When you have been allowed to get away with telling so much spin and lies of course you will carry on with this approach until someone calls you out. Bishop is the master of spin and lies it just rolls of his tongue like second nature Nicotine Wills is also a major spinner. We have three years of this rubbish.
I would just like to reiterate Hone’s point about ‘thats the horrifying thing, they are so naked in their charge for cash’.
It’s sort of beyond belief, the admission by Nicotine Willis it’s tobacco money for tax dollars.
Yeah, antforce62 at the moment the gnats favorite line is, ”we are taking advice” yet Luxon said his party would hit the ground running doesn’t look like it.
Yeah, antforce62 at the moment the gnats favorite line is, ”we are taking advice” yet Luxon said his party would hit the ground running doesn’t look like it.
If you are dumb enough to smoke… shall we ban cars, they kill a few a year, perhaps getting fat. ban sugar, mountain clinbing, swiming?
Other than banning sugar, getting fat and smoking the others are positive risks, there’s a massive difference, anyone with half a brain can see that.
Van Weldon-the little afterthought of David Seymour who’s never won a fair election in his life. And she’s a minister.. of what?
Minister of lies…
ACT deputy leader Brooke van Velden has been accused of misquoting Simon Upton, the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment.
Upton publicly rebuked van Velden, in a letter published to the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment’s website.
The allegation came after Van Velden appeared on TVNZ’s breakfast show last Tuesday in which she said,
“And when the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment looked at this ban after the fact, he said it’s likely to increase global emissions because we still need electricity as a source”.
Upton said this was both “incorrect and misleading”.
He also pointed out a comment that came from ACT’s Energy Policy which claimed Upton had found that the offshore oil and gas exploration ban would “actually increase global emissions by forcing activity offshore.”
In his letter, Upton said “I most definitely did not say that the ban would increase global emissions. In fact, I said that those opposing the ban must acknowledge that: “There is no firm basis for claiming that it will increase global emissions.”
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