Originally published 2021-12-10.
In December 2021 New Zealand announced one of the boldest anti-smoking plans in the world: a “smokefree generation” rule that would stop anyone born on or after 1 January 2009 from ever legally buying cigarettes or other smoked tobacco. Parliament passed the law in December 2022. Then, before the key ban took effect, a new government repealed it in February 2024.
So if you are wondering whether New Zealand still bans tobacco for young people: it does not. Under-18s cannot buy tobacco, as before, but the lifelong generational ban, the sharp cut in shops and the very-low-nicotine rule were all scrapped. Here is what the plan was, why it was praised and criticised, and how it was undone.
What the 2021 plan proposed
The plan was launched on 9 December 2021 by Associate Health Minister Dr Ayesha Verrall as part of the Smokefree Aotearoa 2025 Action Plan. New Zealand had set a goal back in 2011 of getting adult daily smoking below 5 percent by 2025, and officials feared that target would be missed, especially for Māori.
Verrall’s announcement opened with a stark figure: “Smoking is still the leading cause of preventable death in New Zealand and causes one in four cancers.” The plan had three main pillars:
- A generational ban: it would become an offence to sell or supply smoked tobacco to people in new age cohorts, so that anyone who was 14 when the law came in would never be able to buy it legally.
- Very low nicotine: only smoked tobacco with very low nicotine levels, so much less addictive, could be sold.
- Far fewer shops: the number of retailers allowed to sell smoked tobacco would fall sharply from around 8,000 outlets at the time, with early reports suggesting fewer than 500 would remain.
The plan also promised more support to help existing smokers quit, including stop-smoking services designed for Māori and Pacific communities, with a Māori Advisory Taskforce chaired by Dame Tariana Turia.
Why Māori health was at the centre
Smoking in New Zealand has fallen steadily for decades, but not evenly. At the time of the announcement, The Guardian reported that around 29 percent of Māori adults smoked, compared with about 12 percent of the whole population. The government warned that without new measures it would be decades before Māori smoking fell below 5 percent.
That gap feeds directly into life expectancy. Smoking-related cancers, heart disease and lung disease hit Māori, Pacific and low-income communities hardest, which is why many Māori health organisations strongly backed the law and later fought its repeal.
What the final law said
The bill became the Smokefree Environments and Regulated Products (Smoked Tobacco) Amendment Act 2022. It passed its third reading 76 votes to 43 on 13 December 2022 and received royal assent three days later. Compared with the first announcement, some details changed:
- Selling or supplying smoked tobacco to anyone born on or after 1 January 2009 would be banned, with fines of up to NZ$150,000.
- Only approved retailers could sell smoked tobacco, capped at 600 nationwide.
- Nicotine in smoked tobacco would be limited to 0.8 mg per gram.
- Further rules covered vaping retailers, vending machines and herbal smoking products.
Parts of the Act came into force in 2023, but the biggest changes were timed for later, giving shops time to adjust.
The repeal in 2024
After the October 2023 election, the coalition agreement between National, ACT and New Zealand First, signed on 24 November 2023, included repealing the Act, even though National had not campaigned on it. Finance Minister Nicola Willis said the repeal would help fill a hole in the budget, since the smokefree rules had been forecast to reduce tobacco tax revenue. The repeal bill was introduced and passed under urgency on 27 and 28 February 2024, and took effect in early March.
The decision was controversial. Public health researchers and Māori health leaders warned of avoidable deaths. Public health professor Collin Tukuitonga called it “immoral and embarrassing internationally”. On the other side, ACT MP Todd Stephenson dismissed the law as a “dopey experiment in prohibition”, and Prime Minister Christopher Luxon argued that slashing the number of shops would fuel a black market and ram-raids on the stores that remained. A 1News–Verian poll found 60 percent of people opposed the repeal.
The main arguments for and against a generational ban
Arguments in favour
- Almost all smokers start young, so stopping new generations from buying tobacco targets the habit at its source.
- Nobody who can legally smoke today loses that right, which makes it gentler than an outright ban.
- Cutting nicotine and the number of shops makes quitting easier for existing smokers.
Arguments against
- Adults of the same age would have different rights depending on their birth year, which some see as unfair.
- Prohibitions can push sales underground and boost smuggling.
- Small shops relying on tobacco sales would lose income, and remaining sellers might become crime targets.
A related worry from the start was vaping. The generational ban covered smoked tobacco only, so vapes stayed legal. Youth vaping in New Zealand peaked in 2021, when about one in five Year 10 students vaped regularly, and has since fallen; daily smoking among the same age group is now around 1 percent.
Where the idea lives on
New Zealand was the first country to pass a generational tobacco ban, and although it reversed course, the idea travelled. The United Kingdom has since debated a similar rule for people born on or after 1 January 2009, and the Maldives reportedly adopted a generational ban for people born from 2007. Local versions also exist, including Brookline in Massachusetts. Earlier, Beverly Hills in California became the first US city to end most tobacco sales outright.
For New Zealand, the debate is not over. Health groups continue to campaign for stronger measures, and in November 2025 campaigners at the global tobacco-control treaty meeting gave the country its tongue-in-cheek “Dirty Ashtray” award for backsliding. If you smoke and want to stop, your doctor or a local quit service can help you find an approach that works.
Sources: New Zealand Government: Historic step towards a smokefree future (9 December 2021); Wikipedia: Smoked Tobacco Amendment Act 2022 and its repeal; New Zealand Ministry of Health: smoked tobacco amendment legislation. Māori and national smoking rates as reported by The Guardian, December 2021.
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