Costello refusing to meet anti-vape group
Associate Health Minister Casey Costello has declined to meet with a group of parents seeking tighter regulations on vaping to protect young people, despite saying she wants to reduce youth vaping.
Costello, who last week apologised or misleading the House over requesting advice on freezing tobacco excise tax, has refused multiple requests to meet with Vape Free Kids NZ. She now says she “envisages meeting with Vape Free Kids” as part of the coalition Government’s plans on vaping control, but no invitation has been sent.
Vape Free Kids spokesperson Charyl Robinson said: “When making decisions about what to do about youth vaping, the families of people affected are not on her list.”
The active group is made up of more than 2000 members and last August petitioned Parliament for stronger vaping laws. “I’ve got zero confidence they are going to do anything meaningful to fix the problem. I feel they are they are acting in someone else’s interest, not those of our children,” Robinson said.
Costello formerly chaired the Taxpayers Union, which receives money from British Tobacco. Her actions follow moves to reverse the previous Government’s smokefree laws.
Labour health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall said Costello needed to prove she was committed to improving Kiwis’ health. “Vaping is an issue of huge concern and she should hear from the people who represent those concerns.”
Robinson made contact with Costello’s office on December 21, asking to meet to address the “youth vaping epidemic” and was told she would hear back in the new year. When she had heard nothing by February 8, she again requested a meeting and invited Costello to a rally against youth vaping, to be held in Hastings today. Robinson also approached Health Minister Shane Reti, saying Costello was not engaging with them, but Reti’s office referred her back to Costello.
On Wednesday, a reply from Costello said: “The minister is unable to meet with you, or attend the rally on Saturday 24 February.”
She added the coalition agreement between National and NZ First included commitments to strengthen penalties for the sale of vapes to under-18s and to ban disposable vapes.
She said vaping was an important tool to help smokers to quit but it needed to be balanced with protections for young people.
She would not be interviewed for this story, and did not directly answer questions on why she would not meet with the group. Her office provided an almost identical response to what she said to Robinson, adding she had spoken to the Education Minister and more work was needed to help schools take the right approaches to addressing vaping.
“There has been a significant amount of work to get to develop our smokefree and vaping control proposals and I’ve met with some of the large number of stakeholders ...,” Costello’s statement said. “I’ll be talking to stakeholders as we take these proposals forward, so envisage meeting Vape Free Kids as part of that.”