Plain packaging stoush watched from across ditch

Eleanor Hall
April 20, 2012

ELEANOR HALL: The High Court of Australia yesterday reserved its decision on the tobacco industry’s challenge to Australia’s plain cigarette packaging laws yesterday.

But the global tobacco companies may be facing a new challenge across the Tasman.

The New Zealand government says it is now considering similar legislation in order to cut down on health problems caused by smoking.

New Zealand’s associate health minister Tariana Turia spoke to me a short time ago.

Minister, why are you considering changing cigarette packaging in New Zealand now?

TARIANA TURIA: Well, we’ve been aware of the Australian moves on plain packaging and in fact we did issue a statement supporting Nicola Roxon’s announcement when the legislation was proposed back in April last year. And basically we have been following up on what she has been doing and we have looked forward really to New Zealand following suit.

So we have been doing our own policy work on the option of introducing plain packaging so that we could align with Australia.

ELEANOR HALL: Will you wait for the High Court result in Australia before you legislate?

TARIANA TURIA: Well, what we are doing is, at the moment we have agreed in principle and we are out now consulting with the constituency around this issue.

So we think that will probably take some time. We do want to spend time doing that because we want to be sure that we have got the support, and we are hoping that by the end of the year we should be able to make some more substantive decisions.

ELEANOR HALL: How strong is the tobacco lobby in New Zealand? Do you expect the industry to challenge you in New Zealand’s courts if you do decide to go ahead with legislation?

TARIANA TURIA: Well, they have certainly been threatening to do that but we shouldn’t be allowing tobacco companies to be determining our domestic law. So while we appreciate that this is an issue that they will take up, we also believe that in terms of Australia, they have constitutional law and it is not directly relevant to New Zealand.

So while we know that the tobacco industry has got deep pockets and is finding all sorts of ways to challenge plain packaging under domestic and international law, we also believe that we actually have a very good case.

ELEANOR HALL: So if the Australian Government loses this challenge, would you shelve your plans?

TARIANA TURIA: Well, that would depend on what Cabinet decides but as I said, we do have a different argument in terms of the regulation of tobacco products and pursuit of public health goals, and that doesn’t diminish the property of the tobacco company so we feel fairly confident that if we adopt this approach that we wouldn’t lose any court case.

ELEANOR HALL: You say that the tobacco industry is already threatening. The governments of Honduras and Ukraine are also signalling that they’ll back the tobacco industry and challenge these sorts of laws in the World Trade Organisation. How big a fight do you expect if you do legislate for plain packaging?

TARIANA TURIA: Well, I guess that remains to be seen. We don’t actually have any evidence of exactly what it is that they will do or whether other countries will in fact join in but we are certainly supporting Australia.

I understand that Britain is also looking at this as well and I guess that in the end our main focus is the fact that we have over 5,000 people who die a year from this killer substance and we need to do something about it.

ELEANOR HALL: That is New Zealand’s associate health minister Tariana Turia.