Letter | Is the NZ Government responding adequately to the Māori Affairs Select Committee’s 2010 recommendations on tobacco control? A brief review

Māori smoking rates have barely changed since 2011, and the Government is not doing enough to address tobacco-related harm amongst Māori, say leading tobacco researchers and public health advocates.

The Government’s actions on the Māori Affairs Select Committee’s 2010 recommendations for addressing tobacco-related harm have been reviewed and published in the New Zealand Medical Journal. This review shows, five years on, little or no progress on several key measures recommended in the Committee’s report. “Only eight out of 42 recommendations have been fully implemented and we believe the failure to complete or adequately advance the remaining 34 recommendations is hindering progress towards the Smokefree 2025 goal, particularly for Māori,” conclude the review authors.

The media release distributed in conjunction with this letter can be read here.

The full letter can be viewed in the New Zealand Medical Journal (note password access is required until July 2016).

To find out more or to request a copy of the letter, please contact:
Richard Edwards
University of Otago, Wellington
email richard.edwards@otago.ac.nz

Citation

Ball, J., Edwards, R., Waa, A., Bradbrook, S.K., Gifford, H., Cunningham, C., Hoek, J., Blakely, T., Wilson, N., Thomson, G., Taylor, S. (2015) Is the NZ Government responding adequately to the Māori Affairs Select Committee’s 2010 recommendations on tobacco control? A brief review. New Zealand Medical Journal 2016; 129 (1428): 93-97