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Associate Health Minister Casey Costello has told Newstalk ZB\u2019s Mike Hosking she did not ask to remove the excise tax on tobacco. However, she conceded there was a line in a document from last year about removing it for three years.\xa0

Costello declined an invitation to go on TVNZ\u2019s Breakfast this morning but has fronted up over her denial she specifically sought advice on\xa0freezing the tobacco excise tax.\xa0

\u201cIt\u2019s just a broad document,\u201d she said.\xa0

\u201cThere\u2019s no involvement from big tobacco, this is just nonsense.\u201d\xa0

Costello confirmed she had links to the New Zealand Taxpayers\u2019 Union, but has no association or involvement with the tobacco industry.\xa0

\u201cI have sympathy [for smokers], I\u2019m getting messaging from people who know they should stop smoking, but they\u2019re addicted.\u201d\xa0

She said prohibition doesn\u2019t cure addiction, and they want to look at a range of things to help people quit.\xa0

Documents show Costello asked for advice on freezing the excise, despite denying in an interview with RNZ that she had specifically sought the advice.\xa0

But when speaking during Question Time on Thursday, Costello doubled down, maintaining she had not specifically asked for the advice, and she had not written the documents she sent to officials.\xa0

\u201cThe documentation is a range of historical policy positions and notes that were held in New Zealand First policy positions. Some of it relates to things that were passed in the legislation when New Zealand First was in Government. This is a range of points and positions and it\u2019s about five pages long.\u201d\xa0

She said her actions had been distorted by the media.\xa0

\u201cThe fact is, I was asked a question about whether I had sought specific advice. I had not sought specific advice, which was the question I answered. I referred to a range of advice I had sought from officials,\u201d she said.\xa0

Costello said she was unsure who wrote the documents.\xa0

Labour\u2019s health spokeswoman, Dr Ayesha Verrall, said the minister was still responsible for the documents she presented, and the Prime Minister should relieve Costello of her duties.\xa0

\u201cWhen a minister gives documents to officials, if that is done or collated by her office it is still her responsibility. Her office acts on her behalf, she needs to take responsibility for it.\u201d\xa0

Senior National Party minister Chris Bishop said that while ministers were responsible for things they gave officials, there was a question over whether they were responsible for the generation of that material.\xa0

\u201cI would argue they cannot be, in the same way that if, for example, a Labour Party minister gave a document to the Ministry of Education, that was the NZEI or the PPTA or the CTU, for example, they cannot be questioned about the CTU in Parliament.\xa0

\u201cThey can be questioned about the handling of that document and what\u2019s in the document, but the generation of that document I think would fall outside the scope of ministerial responsibility.\u201d\xa0

Speaking to media after Question Time, he said the matter of the authorship of New Zealand First\u2019s policies was for Costello to answer, but he had certainly presented party policy to officials.\xa0

He said talking to a range of groups was how the country gets good policy.\xa0

\u201cPeople have easy access to ministers and MPs in New Zealand. All political parties work with a range of groups when it comes to developing policy.\u201d\xa0

Standing in for the Prime Minister in the House, Act leader David Seymour said he had had assurances from all coalition partners they had had no funding from the tobacco industry.\xa0

\u201cI am confident that there has been no undue influence on the policies of this Government by the tobacco industry.\u201d\xa0

Seymour told reporters it was possible Costello had misinterpreted RNZ\u2019s questioning, and RNZ had misinterpreted her answers, which had caused confusion.\xa0

\u201cI think that she was being open to the best of her ability. The other thing I just say is this: We say we want people in our democracy to stand up, run for office, and become ministers, and actually go and listen, take the best advice, and make the best policy. She\u2019s done all that stuff and people are jumping all over her.\u201d\xa0

- NZ Herald with RNZ\xa0

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