Yes though caveat there... The current right-wing government repealed that ban upon taking power in 2023.
It might not surprise you know that multiple ministers in that government (including the one in charge of the repeal) are former tobacco lobbyists...
Just *chef's kiss* that the guy who was claiming that a smoking ban is antithetical to freedom blocked me for pushing back.
Some real principled classical liberal values on display there...
Yeah I get it. Beer and wine are fun to drink.
But the societal costs of alcohol are immense, both in direct health costs and in second-order effects like domestic violence, etc.
This report looks at NZ, but it's the same everywhere...
www.health.govt.nz/system/files...
Yeah I do. Because I think that if a product is sufficiently dangerous to the user (not just to others), then it should be banned.
And tobacco products are so detrimental to human health that you can set the bar quite high and they'll clear it easily...
Smoking at home and exposing your children doesn't eliminate the problem!
If a product is so dangerous that you have to ban advertising, slap giant labels on the box saying it's will kill you, and tax it to oblivion, why not just ban it?
Smoking cigarettes also has a huge effect on people around you! Second-hand smoke is linked to asthma, coronary disease, stroke, lung cancer, the list goes on.
In fact, the CDC estimates that second-hand smoke alone has killed 2.5 million non-smoking Americans since the 1960s!
Yeah probably, to be honest. From a public health perspective it's not a tough call at all (and I say this as someone who loves a good glass of wine). There's a reason that every public health organization has drastically cut down alcohol intake recommendations recently. It's really bad for you!
That logic justifies repealing all food safety laws, legalizing all drugs, and abolishing vaccine mandates.
"I have the right to buy and use raw milk/lead paint/cigarettes" is a fundamentally right-wing viewpoint that privileges individualism over any concept of society.
The NZ ban "[received] support from academics, clinicians, leaders of local indigenous communities, and the general public." The only people who wanted it repealed were tobacco lobbyists and their captured government.
"Smoking is freedom" is the worst possible argument for smoking and for freedom.
NZ used to have this policy, but it was repealed by a right-wing government with ex-tobacco lobbyists as ministers.
It's completely insane that people on the left want to condemn future generations to lung cancer and vascular disease because it's "unfair" that kids can't smoke.
Liberalism has to mean more than "freedom to kill yourself however you want." We ban all kinds of dangerous and harmful things. Adding cigarettes to that list can't come soon enough.
You should really ask yourself why you're siding with tobacco lobbyists and against public health workers...
This is actually a great idea. Smoking has massive public health costs and no societal benefits.
"We must protect the freedom of the youth to smoke themselves to death" is a terrible hill to die on. Siding with tobacco lobbyists, but from the left.
Science-folks: If we run 100 experiments, we might find 1 or 2 of them may have results that can make many dollars.
NZ Govt: Excellent. We will fund those 1 or 2 experiments.
The recent WHO situation is a perfect example: Two ministers from different parties gave different justifications for a radical action taken without cabinet discussion, and the PM claims he was unaware.
That deserves a lot more scrutiny! It's every issue about this government in one package!
If anything I'd argue that this is really one of the few times the political media have aggressively interrogated Luxon about the workings of his government! He's gotten away with minimal scrutiny of coalition squabbles, being unaware, etc. They should ask this kind of question more!
Someone should put together a side-by-side of international media headlines for Luxon vs Ardern and send them to his office
It's just relentless eh? Almost got blown over picking my kids up a little while ago...
It's also not an either-or situation. Stuff was running simultaneous live blogs on the weather disaster and Luxon leadership drama.
I'm decidedly not a mainstream media defender, but they're actually doing completely fine here!
Basically what Kier Starmer told Labour, and that's worked out perfectly for him!
I dunno, I think globally covid ended up empowering reactionaries no matter what the policy response was.
NZ is a great example: world-leading covid response, government won re-election with record majority... and then 3 years a huge backlash with anti-vax parties in government
Look I don't think Winston has any appeal whatsoever. But he's clearly charming to a significant subset of the population.
Chris and Chris are personally appealing to basically nobody, which is probably why they're both looking at PPM ratings of 15-20 despite being major party leaders
Coming up on (another) election where Winston Peters' shambling corpse is more charismatic than either major party leader 🤦🏾♂️
I'm outraged that the *looks at name* "Petty Hate Machine" was hostile toward stupid bullshit. I must speak to the manager about this.
Something fitting about a party which has spent this term trashing Wellington at every opportunity being consumed today with internecine dramas, indifferent the city's attempts to dig itself out from a disaster.
Hahaha it's right there in the name, what do these doofuses think they're going to get from you?
It's increasingly not even if you're poor. I honestly don't understand how people on a median income afford groceries and power bills
Love to turn down work because it's woke to save on energy bills or something...
When we were buying, our first question at every property was "what's the heating and insulation?"
The real estate agents would just respond with something like "oh it's warm it's got great afternoon sun". We quickly learned that meant the place is old and cold...
How's that boot taste?