More than 80,000 Kiwi smokers need to quit their habit before the end of the year to meet the Smokefree 2025 goal, but a public health professor says there's no chance

Our world-leading Smokefree Aotearoa 2025 legislation barely survived to see this year, and the reality of addressing tobacco use is "like whack-a-mole"

More than 80,000 Kiwis must quit smoking before the end of the year to meet the goal of Smokefree 2025, which was launched 14 years ago.

But Professor of Public Health Chris Bullen tells The Detail that it is unlikely to happen - "I don't believe so, sadly".

"The evidence suggests we are not heading in the right direction fast enough," says Bullen, who is also the director of the National Institute for Health Innovation.
"We have got more work to do in 2026 and beyond."

The smokefree goal aims to have less than 5 percent of the population smoking by December, but the latest data reveals there are still about 300,000 daily smokers across the country.

Bullen says part of the issue is, last year, the Coalition government repealed three areas of the Smokefree law, most importantly the denicotinisation of tobacco products (where the nicotine is basically taken out of cigarettes) and banning the sale of tobacco products to those born after January 1, 2009.

"I think we could have gotten to the goal under the previous legislation, but that was repealed by the current government.

"The lack of policies to support and motivate more people to think about quitting means there's an awful lot of effort on the ground that's got to go on to get 84-, 85-thousand people to quit smoking between now and the end of the year and I just don't see it happening fast enough."

He says the denicotinisation strategy needs to be revisited, and a smoke-free generation approach needs to be adopted to encourage young people not to start smoking.

"Other countries picked up the baton when we dropped it, and I think that would lock in the very low levels of smoking in our young people, forever, and this would be a real boost for their future prospects."

The Detail also speaks to Bullen about illegal tobacco and vaping, and the role they play in Smokefree Aotearoa.

A tobacco industry-funded report has just revealed that 25 percent of cigarettes sold in New Zealand are from the black market, smuggled into the country, largely from China and South Korea, and available on Facebook Marketplace, at construction sites, and in some dairies…

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details