The Ministry of Health is this week marking the 20th anniversary of the ground-breaking Smoke-free Environments Amendment Act (2003) coming into force.

The Act ensured that all indoor workplaces, including restaurants, bars, and clubs, became 100 per cent smokefree.

“New Zealanders advocated for this change, and it brought about a fundamental shift where smoking was no longer socially acceptable inside,” said Deputy Director-General Public Health Agency Dr Andrew Old.

“Young people, who would have grown up with this change, now have some of the lowest smoking rates in the world."

Old said latest data highlights that around 98 per cent of children are no longer exposed to second-hand smoke inside the home - a 3 per cent increase from 10 years ago - indicating a generational shift away from cigarettes in New Zealand.

“The Act was a pivotal step in making sure that, for the first time, workers and staff were legally protected from second-hand smoke," Old said.

“The denormalisation of smoking has also had positive effects on the health of all New Zealanders. In 2004, nearly 1 in 4 New Zealanders over 15 were cigarette smokers. As of 2024, that number is approximately 1 in 14.

“We know from the Global Burden of Disease study (2021) that tobacco attributable deaths for all causes is on a downward path,” he said.

New Zealand has seen some of the largest drops in smoking rates across the world in recent years, from 16.4 per cent smoking daily in 2011/12 to 6.9 per cent in the 2023/24 New Zealand Health Survey.

Background

The Smoke-free Environments (Enhanced Protection) Amendment Bill was submitted in 1999 as a Private Member’s Bill.

In its initial format, the Bill didn’t specify protection from second-hand smoke for workers in licensed premises but did include other measures, such as a ban on smoking in the buildings and grounds of schools, a ban on the display of tobacco at the point of sale, and increased power for judges to remove the rights of retailers who were caught repeatedly selling tobacco to minors.

In 2003 the Health Committee recommended a complete ban on smoking be introduced in all indoor workplaces, including bars, casinos, and restaurants. The aims of the revised Bill were to further protect workers, volunteers, and the public from exposure to second-hand smoke, to decrease harm to individuals caused by their smoking, and to further restrict access of minors to smoking products.

In response to the recommendations of the Health Committee, the Smoke-free Environments (Enhanced Protection) Amendment Act received Royal Assent on 10 December 2003 and came into force on 10 December 2004.