The New Zealand National Party government banged up the price of cigarettes today by 10%, and roll your own tobacco by 14%, supposedly to help people quit the habit? Get real, it is nothing more than revenue gathering. It will go up twice more each Christmas period so that the total increase will eventually be 30%.
If the Nats were genuine in their desire to see people quit the habit they would have introduced a policy to assist smokers, with a warning period, a higher increase and a limited subsidy on nicotine patches, gum etc and a free counselling service number to advise smokers.
I'm convinced that it is really a revenue gathering exercise to raise funds for the Whanau Ora program and other pet projects.
This government is a bunch of right wing scatter-brained ideologues with an array of hidden agendas.
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