OPINION

It seems to have escaped the notice of Ayesha Verrall that Labour has lost the election. She has been throwing a paddy, stamping her feet and huffing on about changes to smoking legislation. As a result of her hyperbolic ranting, she has made a very, very bold claim: that decisions around “smoking” usually have bipartisan consensus.

Labour’s health spokesperson Dr Ayesha Verrall said it was “absolutely disgusting” that the Government was playing with those laws to “fund the National Party’s tax credits”.  

A number of health experts have expressed dismay at the Government’s decision, which has also been picked up by overseas media outlets.  

Dr Verrall said health leaders were “so shocked” because usually decisions around smoking have a bipartisan consensus.   

She found it “absolutely hard” to believe the Government could bring down smoking at the same rate as the current legislation would lead to.  

Newshub

This is news to just about everyone involved in politics because there has never been a bipartisan consensus on tobacco control. Ever.

Maybe Ayesha Verrall was not in the house when National and ACT repeatedly spoke against and voted against tobacco control legislation.

While the professional bludger/trougher classes are having kittens over a new government not listening to their intellectual superiors, Derek Cheng in the Herald deserves credit for a thoughtful and accurate piece of journalism. He outlines specifically where ACT and National did not come to a bipartisan consensus on tobacco control.

National and Act opposed the law change in December last year, and while Act didn’t make a song and dance about it during the campaign, its alternative Budget banked additional revenue from reversing the law. The NZ First 2023 manifesto also called for repealing the changes “put in place by Labour to achieve an illusory Smokefree 2025.”

NZ Herald

Derek Cheng will probably be sacked for actually reporting facts instead of making stuff up and saying a lefty rant is an “opinion”.

And Ayesha Verrall is lucky that the media don’t hold her to the same standards as Winston Peters, whom they are fact-checking on media bribes while publishing a lie as fact-without-question. 

But the point remains: Labour and their over-bearing nanny statism were soundly and comprehensively beaten at the election. Voters actually voted for this, that’s how democracy works, and Ayesha Verrall and her little army of troughers and bludgers need to pull their heads in.

We won, you lost, eat that.

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As much at home writing editorials as being the subject of them, Cam has won awards, including the Canon Media Award for his work on the Len Brown/Bevan Chuang story. When he’s not creating the news,...