NZ Congratulated for Plain Packaged Cigarettes

New Zealand will follow Australia’s lead in forcing cigarette makers to sell their products in plain packs, writes Dan Harrison, Health reporter for The Age. ‘Associate Health Minister Tariana Turia announced that she would introduce legislation to standardise the colour and design of cigarette packets and require more prominent health warnings before the end of the year. The proposals are expected the receive the support of most parties in the Parliament, but Mrs. Turia said the government could delay enacting the laws until legal challenges to Australia’s plain packaging had concluded’. The Age quotes Mrs. Turia as saying that ‘plain packaging, would remove the last remaining vestige of glamour from these deadly products.’ The Age notes that Australian Health Minister Tanya Plibersek and Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus congratulated New Zealand, and said that Australia would ‘viperously defend’ its laws, wherever they were contested.