A Parliamentary inquiry into the tobacco industry is calling for New Zealand to be smokefree by 2025.

That’s just 15 years from now.

The report is from the Maori Affairs Select Committee and is due out officially tomorrow, but has been leaked to 3 News.

More than 5000 New Zealanders die each year of smoking-related illnesses.

The select committee has the blowtorch on the tobacco industry with an inquiry which has lasted all year.

MPs want tobacco consumption halved by 2015 and they want the country smokefree by 2025.

In other recommendations, MPs want the Government to force:

• Tobacco companies to pay for all smoking cessation drugs
• And to fund a campaign to de-normalise tobacco and the industry.

The report recommends reducing the amount of tobacco coming into New Zealand.

It wants plain packaging and nicotine levels to be reduced annually.

The committee also calls for a ban on retail displays, and limits to where cigarettes can be sold, as well as a ban on the word ‘tobacco’ in retail outlets.

“I’m very hopeful this will lead to huge changes in the way we treat tobacco in New Zealand,” says ASH Director Ben Youdan.

3 News asked Prime Minister John Key if he thought New Zealand could become smokefree in 15 years.

He said it would be a “huge ask”.

The inquiry also recommends the Government continues to increase excise tax.

“It is the number one deterrent,” says Mr Key. “We will keep doing that.”

Both National and Labour agree the crackdown on cigarettes and the tobacco industry has to be done.

But both parties are also wary of moving too fast and turning off voters who may accuse them of being too nanny state.

This is a bold report, and now the anti-smoking lobby is demanding a bold response from the Government.

(Source 3 News)