Time to call a smoko on smokers

New Zealand is plagued by a segment of the population, and it isn't the few people who choose to smoke cigarettes. No, it is the army of incessant busybodies who dictate the lifestyle choices of everyone else, and on the taxpayer dime.

Their whipping boy of choice is the tobacco smoker. Government officials and crony charities have come up with the target of a smoke-free New Zealand by 2025 – except they haven't.

A smoke-free New Zealand, in political gibberish, means "an aspirational goal … [to reduce] smoking prevalence and tobacco availability to minimal levels" but with no ban on cigarettes or rolled tobacco. Your guess is as good as mine for what minimal equates to in numbers and how it can be verified.

More notable, though, is that the push for near elimination of tobacco consumption does not mean an outright prohibition, as exists on marijuana. Aside from creating another black market, that would be far less lucrative since it would put an end to the gravy train of sin taxes, research grants, fines on private businesses and funding for mind-numbing media campaigns.

Hitting a bump
This month the 2025 campaign appeared to hit a bump in the road, a tightening of the belt. We read that Ministry of Health officials had decided to "slash funding" for anti-smoking research and advocacy, only to be met with cries of a "crisis" and "deconstruction" of the sector.

That would be good riddance but it just ain't so: The headlines should have focused on increased spending for the 2025 plan. The "chop" is actually a transfer away from some government contractors and a boost to others, with total spending on tobacco control rising to $61 million.

But the storm in a teacup gives us pause to consider the whole anti-tobacco exercise: can we finally we say "enough?"

Let us first dispense with the notion that smoking is a major problem in New Zealand. Like me, 75% of young people have never smoked a single cigarette. According to the government's own data, tobacco consumption has been in persistent decline for the last three decades, and 80% of Kiwis already believe it is socially unacceptable.

Contrary to the proclamations about the costs to the state medical system, they pale in comparison to the sin taxes that tobacco brings in. For every dollar spent on tobacco, 72c is sin tax. British American Tobacco alone sends more than $1 billion in taxes to the New Zealand government each year.

If medical expenses were the concern, those in office would have legalised e-cigarettes as a less harmful option but they remain out of reach.

Highest in the world
Meanwhile, New Zealand is on track to have the highest tobacco taxes in the entire world, with a pack reaching $30 by 2020. Finance Minister Bill English announced the four consecutive years of tax increases as he also touted extra revenue available to pay down the nation's debt.

Not without irony, the 2025 social-engineering scheme was championed by the Maori Party. Since Maori are disproportionately more likely to smoke, these elected officials are beating up on their purported constituency.

And what have smokers received for the money taken from them, aside from condescending educational campaigns? As retail prices get sky high, more turn to the government's Quitline service for counselling. Yes, the government will break your legs financially, and then "help" you with a crutch you paid for many times over.

To rub salt into the would, one of the advocacy organisations bankrolled by the government, Action on Smoking and Health (Ash), has the audacity to advocate even higher taxes. They want 20% increases year in, year out.

Right, so more of it can flow your way. How about having taxes work for constituents, and not the other way around?

Fergus Hodgson (@FergHodgson), originally from Ngaruawahia, is an economic consultant with the Fraser Institute in Canada. He advises the New Zealand Taxpayers' Union. He holds degrees in economics and political science from Boston University and the University of Waikato.

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