May 31, 2016
Plain packaging law on the way
The Maori Party is welcoming the Government's World Smokefree Day promise to pass plain packaging legislation this year.
Co-leader Marama Fox says the party has hounded the Government to send a message to international tobacco companies that New Zealand will not be intimidated by threats of legal action.
She says smoking cigarettes remains one of the biggest causes of preventable illnesses and death, and more than 30 percent of Maori still smoke.
The bill was introduced by party co-founder Dame Tariana Turia in 2014 when she was associate health minister.
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