Party leader Winston Peters announced the policy today, saying the party intended to stop punishing smokers with high excise tax and help them quit.

Peters says it will support ASH's surge strategy, making alternatives to smoking affordable and widely available.

He says the government's current Smokefree 2025 approach isn't working with the added contradiction and hypocrisy of holding a referendum on legalising recreational marijuana.

"We don't think that young and, particularly, poor people should be screwed any longer on this matter," he says.