The Minister for Tobacco.

Casey Costello's plan for cheaper cigarettes.

I really didn’t think I’d be writing about another coalition plan to encourage smoking, to assist those who benefit from it, so soon. Yet here we are again. Turns out they’re less a Coalition of Chaos, more a Coalition for Cancer.

As opposed to the old Fish and Chip Brigade of the 1980s, with Lange, Douglas, Bassett, and Moore, we now have the Coalition for Cigarettes.

It seems like only last month that people were protesting in the streets over the last move, chanting things like “Hey, hey. Ho, ho – Shane Ciga-reti’s got to go”, “We don’t want your tax cuts, funded by cigarette butts”, or, “Nicotine Will-is, all she wants to do is kill us”. That’s because it was. This was the scene in mid December…

Placards and chanting in the carpark of Act HQ. (Photo: Gabi Lardies).

As the country basks in the late arrival of summer, that time of marching in the streets feels more remote as we focus on other absurdities from the new government and a notable absence of anything being done about the serious issues.

Meanwhile our new Associate Minister of Health, Casey Costello, has been cooking up a plan to make things better for us. Not in terms of health it should be noted, in fact it’ll make that worse, but in terms of money.

Yes, while the good people of this country continue to struggle with the cost of living, now made even worse by the coalition having us pay for prescriptions, Road User Charges for our EVs, and a myriad of other mean spirited cuts passed on to the public, one Minister has the courage to stand up and do something to help.

That Minister is Casey Costello, our cost fighting crusader. Her mission is not to reduce the price of groceries through supermarket regulation, or addressing bank profits, or the charges from utility companies.

It’s certainly not for council rates, which will sky rocket as a result of the coalition turfing out Three Waters. Or something really hard like the cost of housing which is going to spiral out of control with a return to the landlord friendly policies of the Key government.

Nope, Casey has a single product in her targets that she wants to ensure does not become more unaffordable. Which could put pressure on people to go without it. That product, as we all know, is Cigarettes.

And that is pretty messed up.

Again.

So what has Casey done?

Ok, so if you missed the latest news cycle here’s a brief summary of what Casey is prioritising in her new role.

Every indication is that Ms Costello is planning to freeze CPI-related excise increases on tobacco. Essentially looking to hold the cost where it is, meaning that as inflation impacts the price of other products, like bread and milk, cigarettes will become relatively more affordable. Thus reducing the financial burden on smokers and making it more affordable for new smokers to start.

When asked about it the Minister disavowed knowledge of any plan to do so, and even denied having requested the information.

This despite the fact that the media have the Ministry of Health document, sent to Costello, asking “whether you would like advice in January 2024 to include implications of a three year freeze on CPI-related excise increases for smoked tobacco.”

The “yes” option is circled in the document, which was signed by Costello on 20 December, 2023.

Just as a general rule, government Ministers aren’t really supposed to lie. It’s considered to be quite poor form and it’s been known to be quite career curtailing in that those who do so have a tendency to rapidly find that they’re no longer Ministers.

Clearly it is being considered, and it’s the sort of thing you expect to see somewhere like the US. Where the motives of some politicians simply cannot be put down to doing things for the citizens, but only to further the interests of lobbyists.

Labour Health spokesperson, Dr Ayesha Verrall said, “Her story doesn't add up. There's a discrepancy between her claim that she did not seek specific advice on stopping the inflation adjustment tobacco excise and reporting by RNZ that she signed off a decision paper asking for that advice… So she needs to come clean, release the paper in question, and clear the matter up.”

Associate Health Minister Casey Costello is proposing a three year freeze on tobacco tax. Photo credit: Getty Images

Casey’s only defense is that she is seeking to help smokers, by keeping the price down. The Minister saying, “I have some sympathy for a freeze because we are now dealing with a much smaller group of people that are carrying an incredible financial burden.”

It’s perhaps admirable to look to keep costs down for people, but you’re not the Minister of Finance Casey, you’re the goddamn Assoc Minister of Health! You’re not supposed to take measures that help people keep smoking!

Janet Hoek, a Professor of Public Health at the University of Otago, said “It seems absolutely astonishing that healthy products, like fruit and vegetables, would continue to have increases in prices as inflation rose but tobacco would be protected and I just can't think of a single other country that has privileged tobacco in that way.”

Health Coalition Aotearoa co-chairperson Boyd Swinburn went even further, suggesting that Costello should be sacked.

“Casey Costello has lost all credibility as an Associate Minister of Health. Everything she has done to date is anti-health - in fact she is acting more like a minister for the tobacco industry… The prime minister needs to take urgent action to restore credibility to this portfolio…

I have dealt with many health ministers in my time and I have never come across one who has come out so hard with so many anti-health policies. It is extraordinary really, and they are all from the tobacco industry play book.”

The Minister responded by saying, “We're dealing with just under 300,000 people who are daily smokers - they are now addicted smokers… I am committed to looking at the very best options to getting those people away from smoking.”

Well keep them smoking then Casey, that tends to provide a solution to that particular problem. Move over Dr Ciga-Reti, there’s a new pro-tobacco Health Minister in town.

Who’s doing this?

It’s not a great surprise that this comes from NZ First, or perhaps that should be NZ Faust in this situation, given the nature of the plan.

But usually you know what you’re getting with them. A bit of sympathetic quid pro quo for their backers from the racing and fishing industries. Then they’ve had the Provincial Growth Fund, the largest slush fund in NZ history. Basically a billion dollar budget for the NZ First re-election fund.

But this, just straight out favours for the tobacco lobby? C’mon that seems pretty corrupt, even for them.

If you think I’m being unfair what would you say about the fact that “A tobacco lobbyist was a guest at the swearing-in ceremony for new government ministers and was pictured posing with NZ First's Shane Jones.”

NZ First MP Shane Jones, pictured with tobacco industry lobbyist Apirana Dawson, left, at the swearing in of Government ministers. Photo: The Press/Supplied.

Yes the chap on the left enjoying Shane Joneses return to power is the Director of External Relations at Philip Morris International, Chris Bishop’s old company.

As for Casey Costello it’s hard to fathom given her extensive time in senior roles with both Hobson’s Pledge and the Taxpayers Union that she is already going to be known for this instead!

Look I’m not going to suggest, given all the evidence, that it’s easy for NZ First to find candidates. They are a very odd bunch of flotsam and jetsam who have now somehow found themselves washed up in parliament as MPs, some in cabinet as Ministers.

I first wrote about Casey in a newsletter about the new MPs who were entering parliament, back in October.

Induction Day.

In that article I noted that Casey was a long term spokesperson for the anti-Māori hate group Hobson’s Pledge, and a former chair, board member, and long time financial supporter, of the Taxpayers’ Union (TPU).

If you’re not familiar with the TPU think of them like this. Do you remember those old Disney Cartoons where a character like Donald Duck wrestled between the advice of a little devil and a little angel on his shoulders, a dilemma between right and wrong. The TPU are like that little devil, on the shoulder of the ACT party, imploring them to be worse.

Kind of like a more presentable Whale Oil. With Jordan Williams sharing similar attitudes towards the left, and the ladies, as his mate Cameron Slater. They’re recently been in the news as part of the exposé on shadowy group Atlas.

There has been excellent reporting from George Monbiot on that group, where he states that “The Atlas Network’s dark-money junktanks are behind neoliberal policies around the world. And you may find its leaders on a resignation honours list near you.”

Sure enough in the last six years that records are available for (2016-2022) just two local organisations have been funded by Atlas.

• The New Zealand Initiative (NZI)

• The NZ Taxpayers’ Union (TPU)

The former, the NZI, provide many of the neoliberal advertorials in the Herald and Stuff, whereas the latter is the organisation that Casey Costello has been so closely involved in.

It kind of makes you wonder what a hardcore neoliberal like Casey is doing in conservative NZ First, rather than the ACT party.

Oh, and it gets better. The good folks over at the TPU have not only railed against cigarette tax increases and plain packaging laws in New Zealand, but they count tobacco giant, British American Tobacco, among their corporate funders.

Mind you if Casey was in the ACT party, with their views on personal freedom and bringing back Pseudoephedrine, maybe she’d be pursuing something else instead…

So is this a problem?

Look I’m not going to make the case for non smoking, or why the Ministry of Health takes measures to reduce smoking. These things are so blindingly obvious and non controversial that no argument is needed. Which is why people are so outraged.

You’d think if they had a guide for new Health Ministers one of the first things it would say is don’t take measures that help tobacco companies and encourage smoking. I’m kidding of course, no Health Minister, not even an associate one, should need to be told that.

So now we have a Minister of Health who has lost all credibility over his support for removing Smokefree initiatives, and an Associate Health Minister who appears to be working on behalf of the tobacco industry. What could possibly go wrong?

“C’mon kiddies, just one little cigarette, first pack is free”. Photo: RNZ.

The usual rules do not apply with these guys. They’re actively doing things that other governments might joke privately about but not dare to actually do. We should not be giving these people the benefit of the doubt, they have forfeited that already through these despicable actions.

Will it eventuate? Well, where there is smoke… hmm, it probably means former tobacco lobbyist, Minister Chris Bishop, is nearby having a puff. And when in comes to cigarettes New Zealand First says just say yes!

A bit of bluegrass today. I’d not heard this one before, but it’s worth a listen.