Tobacco product investigation is requested and warranted

Written By: - Date published: 7:56 am, October 24th, 2024 - 17 comments
Categories: Ayesha Verrall, casey costello, coalition of chaos, corruption, Economy, health, Social issues, taxpayers union, Tobacco - Tags: , ,

Welcome news from yesterday was the request to the Auditor General under the Public Audit Act on the arbitrary and unsupported by evidence decisions on tobacco products by the Customs Minister Casey Costello. As the request stated, Labour’s health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall had reached the limits of the information that she could seek using the Official Information Act.

Every part of the decision by Casey Costello reeks of questions about how it was made, how and what it benefits in NZ, and of the undue influence of a tobacco company.

Guyon Espiner has an excellent in-depth article on RNZ. “Auditor-General asked to investigate Costello decision to slash tax on heated tobacco products“. For me the key aspect is what appears to be a high degree of deliberate murkiness in the process of decision-making by Casey Costello about dropping the tariffs on Heated Tobacco Products (HTPs). This murkiness does appear to be a deliberate feature (and not a bug) in the way that this government processes decisions.

The plan to cut taxes on HTPs dates back to the signing of the government’s coalition agreements. Verrall asked the Auditor-General to take his probe into the senior leadership levels of New Zealand First.

“The Minister’s interaction with her fellow New Zealand First Cabinet members, party staff and officials are not subject to the Official Information Act, thus my ability to obtain further information under this Act is limited,” Verrall wrote. “I believe only an investigation by the Auditor-General can resolve these issues of probity.”

Verrall’s letter also took aim at Costello’s “obfuscatory and misleading” handling of documents on tobacco and vaping policy.

A document arguing for tobacco tax cuts and using language similar to pro-industry talking points, such as the claim that nicotine had the same level of harm as caffeine, was sent by Costello to health officials in December 2023 to help them develop policy.

Costello initially denied the document existed but later said she had received it as a hard copy on 6 December.

Costello has repeatedly said she does not know who wrote the document or who left it on her desk.

Chief Ombudsman Peter Boshier recently found Costello acted “contrary to the law” in withholding documents requested by RNZ and Otago University Professor of Public Health Janet Hoek, and forced her to apologise.

Boshier later took the rare step of asking the Chief Archivist to investigate Costello’s management of documents under the Public Records Act.

As far as I, or apparently anyone else apart from Casey Costello (who is also Associate Minister of Health), are aware – there have been no independent studies, locally or internationally, indicating any positive health benefits of HTP products.

A trial has been scheduled for New Zealand to take place after the only local source of HTPs, international tobacco giant Philip Morris, received the bonus of the Casey Costello’s generous tariff reduction.

Fortunately, in the usual bumbling of this government’s decision making process, there has been a slight glitch in the trial. The government has said the tobacco tax cut on IQOS (and presumably any similar product) will have a one-year trial to determine whether it helps people to quit smoking.

Question to me is if I as a taxpayer paying for that? Or is it a taxpayer funded boondoggle to give Philip Morris a international trial? Or is the methodology that Philip Morris will be in charge of the trial with the ability to skew its results any way that they like. The history of ‘independent studies’ run by giant tobacco companies have a long history of ‘interesting’ methodology seemingly always designed to produce the right result for the company. Or the study gets suppressed.

Verrall’s complaint to the Auditor-General said a trial “requires a formal methodological approach”, but that Costello had provided no description of the evaluation design, data collection or outcome measures.

The trial itself has been temporarily derailed by the fact that the IQOS cannot be sold at the moment, because it does not comply with new regulations forcing vaping devices to have a removable battery and child safety mechanisms.

In March, Costello asked Cabinet for a two-year delay to those regulations but her ministerial colleagues only granted a six-month deferral.

Arguing for the two-year delay, Costello told Cabinet that “it is likely that higher quality vaping devices used by former adult smokers will soon be unavailable domestically as high-end manufacturers that cater to international markets may not make New Zealand specific models”.

She did not address a question from RNZ about whether she was referring to the IQOS product, which has now had to be pulled from sale.

“It is hard to believe that the Minister sought regulatory changes that would allow IQOS devices to continue to be sold by Philip Morris in March, but did so ignorant of the fact that they were non-compliant with regulations,” Verrall said in her letter.

“It may be that the Minister did not disclose the non-compliance of IQOS devices because it would reveal the extent to which she was seeking cabinet to alter regulations largely for the benefit of one company.”

The inquiry request to the Auditor-General is also useful because of the connections that indicate potential corrupt behaviour in the the apparent decision making process for Casey Costello.

Verrall’s letter also cites a Philip Morris corporate affairs strategy from 2017 that was leaked to RNZ by a tobacco insider.

The document outlines the tobacco giant’s strategy for getting tax cuts for HTPs, including plans to target New Zealand First and the Māori Party and “leverage on positions already advocated” by the Taxpayers’ Union and the New Zealand Initiative.

Costello was chair of the Taxpayers Union, prior to entering Parliament on the New Zealand First list.

Verrall believed these links should also be investigated by the Auditor-General.

“It is of significant public interest that your office investigates the decision to remove excise duty on heated tobacco products itself, and whether the tobacco industry interfered in that decision directly, or via any links to New Zealand First or the Taxpayers’ Union.”

The Auditor-General’s office confirmed it had received the complaint from Verrall and said it would now consider whether to investigate.

“We are considering the issues raised in the letter and whether or not we will carry out any inquiry work,” the Auditor-General said in a statement.

The decision by Casey Costello to drop tariffs reducing the customer costs of HTPs has been subject to a lot of questioning across multiple sectors.

Currently that would benefiting a single international tobacco company as a supplier. It would cause the relative costs of vaping to rise by comparison to HTPs which brings obvious questions about unfair ministerial interference in markets. There is absolutely no credible evidence to indicate that it produces any health benefits to the country relative to vaping, or even to cigarette smoking

A probe to see if there was any undue influence in her decision is complete warranted. Even if there was not, the the process to make the decision without any apparent due process is also warranted.

Casey Costello is of course asserting that all of the criticism of the decision to open the market to IQOS and similar products is all politically motivated. Not from this ex-smoker. It just reeks of a lack of robust research, ignoring official advice, undue influence, and a spectacularly flawed decision making process by the minister and her colleagues.

The response of a Tui beer advert to Casey Costello’s assertion of a political motivation is probably warranted.

Yeah right!

17 comments on “Tobacco product investigation is requested and warranted ”

  • Comments are now closed

  1. bwaghorn 1
    24 October 2024 at 8:46 am

    ""Politically motivated ""

    It's the job of opposition to be motivated to stop corrupt behavior in the government of the day , !!

    • Incognito 1.1
      24 October 2024 at 9:11 am

      No, it’s not just the opposition’s job, but also the job of the media and of all citizens for that matter.

      Measuring by MPs, the opposition is only 55 people in a country of 5+ million souls and I think it’s overly simplistic to put all the burden on them, that’s not how our society is meant to work.

      • tc 1.1.1
        24 October 2024 at 11:09 am

        Agreed and Cigareti as far as I can see has had SFA questions about the removal of tobacco bans extra taxes V the holistic costs on NZH over time.

        Pathetic owned media standing by as we get sold out all over to various capital interests.

        • Incognito 1.1.1.1
          24 October 2024 at 11:23 am

          Not to mention the supporters of this coalition government who range from apologist shills and diversion trolls doing their dirty deeds on social media and blog sites to a silent majority of people who turn a blind eye and stay schtum because of naked self-interest or congruence bias.

      • bwaghorn 1.1.2
        24 October 2024 at 5:23 pm

        Crossed wires it would seem , the nats saying it's just politically motivated is there way of trying to do the old nothing to see here , don't worry your sweet little heads dear voters,

        100% the press should wade in but with the likes of Sherman don't hold you're breath.

  2. lprent 2
    24 October 2024 at 9:15 am

    Turns out that there are tui meme generators still active, https://imgflip.com/memegenerator/437401609/Tui-Billboard

  3. Mountain Tui 3
    24 October 2024 at 11:50 am

    lprent

    Not sure if you picked it up yesterday but Winston Peters tried to make up a conspiracy about Labour on this topic – but refused to repeat it outside the House (where he is not covered by Parliamentary privilege)

    I had to laugh – and thought: Labour and Verrall is onto something very important here. Peters is scared.

    Rolling back smoke free repeal i.e. killing Kiwis for profit? It should get noticed in this country.

    BTW – my Substack covered the topic of HTPs – a longitudinal study in Japan found that it did not help smokers quite smoking and the products themselves are an experimental product with questionable claims.

    The Guardian has an article that Philip Morris paid for science. Don't have it with me, but essentially it was clear Philip Morris's strategy was to get close to parties like NZF and get policies like this enacted – so what is happening appears to be in accordance with their wish list if the reports are all accurate.

  4. adam 4
    24 October 2024 at 2:51 pm

    This whole government is operating like the vanguard for a corporate coup d'etat.

    corporate coup d'etat sorry about the link, but if you log in through your local library you can read the article by professor Lou Turner.

    It's all like a bad joke I've been making – " Can you spot the difference between this lot and a Marxist Leninist putsch?" "me either"

  5. thinker 5
    24 October 2024 at 3:16 pm

    I sleep well at night knowing Luxon's got confidence in Costello.

    …and Bayly

    …and…

  6. gsays 6
    24 October 2024 at 3:30 pm

    Good work MT, the obvious links to NZ1st's funders and the policy changes the buy are glaring . Good value for money as the fishing industry found.

    Real Estate purchasing from National, landlord tax cuts/bright line reduction/no CGT etc.

    The gun lobby owning Act and McKee loosening of gun laws, perversely during the mosque multi- murder enquiry.

    Is corruption too strong a word? (Rhetorical question there.)

    Makes ANY influence of the unions on Labour look neglible.

    • feijoa 6.1
      24 October 2024 at 4:18 pm

      And more…

      Fast track projects

      77Billion on roads

      Private health providers

      Charter schools

      School lunches from COMPASS

      The list is so huge now, it's hard to think of everything.

      It IS corruption, surely.

      • gsays 6.1.1
        24 October 2024 at 4:54 pm

        Thanks for the extra reminders.

        School lunches sticks in my craw. Compass FFS!

        Mass produced, no love, low nutritional value, diesel miles embedded into them. Arrgh!

  7. UpsideDown 7
    25 October 2024 at 11:19 pm

    The stench of corruption is thick in the air with this government, particularly NZ First. The day Winston Peters decided to retire will be a very good day for NZ.