New Zealand’s tobacco endgame U-turn – a reversal or an advance?

There has been much agonising about the reversal of New Zealand’s three ‘endgame’ tobacco policy measures by its new right-of-centre governing coalition – one commentator even describing the reversal as “deliberate… systematic genocide“. In short, I think these were poor policy choices with multiple likely unintended consequences. The coalition has cleared the way to developing a better policy environment that would build on New Zealand’s success so far. Rather than bemoaning the loss, public health advocates should respect the election-winning coalition’s rational political choices and get behind a better package of measures that would work politically.