6. Question No. 6—HealthHon Dr AYESHA VERRALL (Labour) to the Associate Minister of HealthQuestion No. 6—Health6. Hon Dr AYESHA VERRALL (Labour) to the Associate Minister of Health: Does she stand by all her statements and actions?Hon CASEY COSTELLO (Associate Minister of Health): Yes in particular my statements that I'm absolutely committed to the Smokefree 2025 targets and to providing practical targeted help so that smokers who are addicted to nicotine can stop.Hon Dr Ayesha Verrall: Was she advised by officials that repealing the 2022 amendments to the Smokefree Environments and Regulated Products Act would mean that the smoke-free goal would not be met until 2061?Hon CASEY COSTELLO: I received a range of advice from officials and we're continuing to develop good legislation and programmes to achieve the Smokefree 2025 targets.Hon Dr Ayesha Verrall: Point of order Mr Speaker. It was a very simple question. Was she advised: yes or no?SPEAKER: You can't ask for a yes or no answer.Hon Dr Megan Woods: She could address it.SPEAKER: Well I think it was addressed by saying that a range of advice was sought.Hon Dr Megan Woods: I don't think it was.SPEAKER: I know you don't think that but I'm here and you're not so—Hon Dr Ayesha Verrall: Was the Minister advised by officials that repealing the 2022 amendments to the Smokefree Environments and Regulated Products Act would mean that the goal was not reached until 2061?Hon CASEY COSTELLO: As I said I've received a range of advice. Some of that advice was based on statistical data that was not current. In the last three years we have seen 219000 people have stopped smoking with vaping playing a key role. Importantly 79000 of those who stopped smoking—36 percent of those who quit—were Māori. We are now receiving statistics where we have a smoking rate of 6.8 percent of New Zealanders daily smoking which is down from the 8.6 percent which was one of the statistics that that data was based upon.Hon Dr Ayesha Verrall: How does she justify repealing the 2022 amendments to the Smokefree Environments and Regulated Products Act when she was advised that that bill would substantially close the difference in life expectancy between Māori and non-Māori?Hon CASEY COSTELLO: We were absolutely committed to achieving the smoke-free targets and we are going to implement systems that target addicted smokers and not generalist virtue-signalling approaches that are unproven.Andy Foster: Has she received reports on the tobacco black market?Hon CASEY COSTELLO: There has already been a substantial black market for cigarettes and crime attached to tobacco retailing and Customs are seeing a high volume of seizures of tobacco both large and small and through multiple channels and an increase in large seizures. It is noted that the previous Government invested $10 million in the 2022 Budget for a dedicated tobacco enforcement team in Customs and we will continue with Labour's unworkable woke virtue-signalling plans. This experimental prohibition regime will make this problem even worse. Hon Dr Ayesha Verrall: Why does she refuse to be interviewed on why she is repealing a law that would save $5 billion in health costs and don't New Zealanders deserve to know the answer to that?Hon CASEY COSTELLO: I have been interviewed on numerous occasions on this issue and I am looking forward to having media interviews on the effective legislation and regulations that we will introduce to ensure that people who are addicted to nicotine smoking will have the tools to quit and that youth vaping will decline.