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What the heck is the Associate Health Minister doing floating the idea of a freeze on cigarette tax increases?\xa0

We know the ongoing hikes in tobacco excise duty have done the job, smoking is right down and only about 8% of us are now daily smokers.\xa0

Tax has essentially priced us out of smoking, they're a couple of dollars a pop these days.\xa0

Now, the coalition dropped a shocker on us with respect to smoking before Christmas, when it ditched that world-leading legislation which would have banned anyone born after 2008 from ever being able to buy tobacco.\xa0

It also abandoned the move to cut the number of tobacco outlets and reduce nicotine content.\xa0

All of those, you'd have hoped, would have helped create an environment in which, slowly but surely, New Zealand would evolve into a nation of non-smokers.\xa0

And as I said at the time: what an achievement that would have been.\xa0

Not that I have anything at all against smokers. It's a personal choice, but it costs you and there's no excuse for not knowing about the health risks. \xa0

But I do know what it's like to be addicted to a harmful substance and the tortures of trying to get off nicotine.\xa0

So, I feel strongly that if we can spare the next generation from that and everything else that goes with smoking, it's the right thing to do.\xa0

So, back to the Associate Health Minister \u2014Casey Costello\u2014 and her sniffing around for information that would support a three-year freeze on tobacco tax hikes.\xa0

The job of the Health Ministry and of its Minister and Associate Ministers is to manage the health system, it's not meant to concern itself with taxation or excise duties.\xa0

It gives the impression that the Associate Minister doesn't recognise the taxes are good for the nation's overall health.\xa0

And worse, it gives the impression the Associate Minister cares more for the tobacco trade, than she does for health.\xa0

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