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6:00 am, April 14th, 2026 - 56 comments
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Open mike is your post.
For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose.
The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy).
Step up to the mike …
Here's a thought. Illicit tobacco wasn't really an issue before we went crazy on taxing it. So why not just remove the tax? That would pretty much stamp it out overnight.
The Police, Customs and Health already have their hands full.
Retail NZ wants a multi-agency taskforce created, including the Police, Customs and Health to crack down on illicit tobacco. They also want increased penalties and an independent roundtable to consider a range of other measures to ensure the illicit tobacco market is stamped out
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/business/592262/retail-nz-wants-rigourous-crackdown-by-government-on-illicit-tobacco
Is this the same retail NZ still supporting the coalition despite their cosying up to the tobacco lobby?
Perhaps illicit tobacco should simply be considered as part of their precious free market? Keep the tax on the legal stuff, but force big tobacco to lower their product price to compete. maybe that will ‘stamp’ them out too.
Hi Kay
I'd say the tobacco lobby is also against cheaper imports taking their market share.
Tax is the majority cost when it comes to tobacco. What big tobacco charge is less than the tax
FIFY
No wonder that I often think that you’re an Onion operative who concern-trolls here.
Here on TS, we have task-force to weed out trolls in general with a step-up in activity during election year. Would you like to meet them?
I'm not concerned. It's an example of failing to take into account all the variables that came into play. And this call to crack down is continuing further down that path. We need to reverse and regain control
But if you want something to be concerned about. Check out this analysis on the Iran war by Robert Pape. Long but very gripping.
It also relates to taking into account all the variables. Thus, the lager picture.
I say there will be a few here that will interested in seeing this:
[TC meets TC aka The Chairman meets Troll Control.
You’re not concerned, therefore you cannot be a concern troll?
If you’re not concerned, I don’t know what your unsubstantiated fear-mongering and making up untruths is.
If that’s not enough, you do some diversion trolling with two unrelated YT clips of 89 and 96 min.
You’ve been beating the same anti-tax drum here for smoking since 2015, even before vaping really became a thing here in NZ. I’d have expected you to have gained some knowledge on the topic during that decade or at least be better informed. Unfortunately, you mis-interpret your own links completely the opposite way and spout BS.
I don’t want to waste time on litigating all your nonsense. It would be like wrestling a nicotine-addicted pig in a pen full of cigarette buds; the pig would love it and I’d end up smelling like an ash-tray.
Many published studies have shown that excise duty is one of the single-most effective measures in reducing smoking. And you rail against it!? Your logic is so flawed that it is moronic.
Whether you’re willingly & knowingly shilling for the tobacco industry or you’re a useful idiot to them doesn’t really matter because the outcome is the same.
In Election Year the Mods here have enough on their hands to be dealing with your smoke & mirrors. Take a month off to burn off some smoke, come back refreshed, and inhale slowly so that you may last here till the Election on 7 Nov – Incognito]
Sorry, posted the wrong link last night That was an earlier interview. Good for context though.
Here is the correct link below
Mod note
School of proper bloggers directives again in the age of mass desperation!
Just because the state makes something scarce, doesn't mean you can steal it. Right?
As of April 2025, tax makes up approximately 80% of the cost of a pack of cigarettes in New Zealand.
Excise duty increased to over $1,800 per kilogram of tobacco, contributing to a total price near $50 for a pack of 25.
And to the results: in 2011 about 16% of us smoked. In 2025 it's about 6.6%.
No, the government isn't increasing the income it gets off it. So far this year, the government’s tobacco excise revenue is $164 million below forecast. If that pace continues, the annual shortfall will reach about $225 million.
This new excise jump will force more people to stop, which is the general idea and I am sure you agree that stopping smoking is a good idea Chairman.
Ponder this:
Tobacco use in New Zealand was in decline well before the massive series of annual tax increases began in 2010–2011.
https://nzmj.org.nz/media/pages/journal/vol-123-no-1308/government-paralysis-stable-tobacco-prices-mean-preventable-deaths-and-disease-persist-along-with-health-inequalities-in-new-zea/cea1159ee2-1696476601/government-paralysis-stable-tobacco-prices-mean-preventable-deaths-and-disease-persist-along-with-health-inequalities-in-new-zea.pdf
And as a result, we got vaping, Which led to this:
https://www.asthmafoundation.org.nz/news-events/vaping-threatens-smokefree-progress-government-must-act-now-health-organisation-warns#:~:text=Vaping%20threatens%20smokefree%20progress%2C%20Government,undermining%20years%20of%20smokefree%20progress.
Evidently, massive tax increases came back to bite us.
We have a massive black market that doesn't care about age or how harmful the product is as well as a legal alterative doing more harm than good.
So I'm sure you would agree that is far worse?
The only confusing thing about that is why you would possibly think it makes any sort of case for reducing Tobacco taxes.
What is it exactly that has you confused?
None of this was really a problem till we went hard. Kids weren't picking it up in numbers. Adults were giving it up. And shopkeepers weren't moaning about the black market The price went up and we had a rush of ramraids, kids vaping and now illegal imports.
A number of shopkeepers were also harmed and killed due to related robberies
Would you rather keep adding taxes, go hard on imports and see a spike in crime again?
The reports you linked support reducing Tabacco taxes, quite the opposite in fact.
While also highlighting its flaws I referenced.
Some do-gooders are blinded in their cause
It seems your thinking on the other hand is not constrained by a requirement for good outcomes.
There has been many different initiatives to encourage smokers to quit and they have largely been successful.
However, while the massive tax increases added to that (people quitting) they also resulted in unintended consequences. Leading to this mess and the call for action.
I think that massive tax hikes were used as a way to hurry the process along but the cause blinded them to the problems
We can continue on with all the other initiatives and even add others that are well thought-out going forward.
Adult and youth smoking declining. No youth vaping. No black market. No extra workload on already stretched agencies. No attacks and robberies of stores or their owners or staff. I'd say all of that is a good outcome
That "crazy" tobacco tax has been so successful that the tobacco industry in New Zealand Aotearoa is/was "on its knees" – apparently.
Does 'your' thought to "just remove the tax" on tobacco come from a "more left than most" space?
The CoC certainly didn’t waste any time, did they.
Our thoughts are one!
When we are all old and the young people ask how we watched this happen and did nothing, how shall we ever be able to explain our shameful cowardice?
https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v48/n07/eyal-weizman/all-they-will-find-is-sand?dm_i=7NIQ,2OBOP,2RLUMN,64634,1,0,0,0
The same question would have been asked of Egypt's children after the reign of Rameses II. Ozymandias by Shelley in 1812 gave the verdict of history on that great leader.
"Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away."
NZ poet RAK Mason wrote A Latter Day Geography Lesson in the same vein in 1924.
"here boys, ere disaster
overtook her, in splendour there lay
a city held empires in sway
and filled all the earth with her praise :
this quoth the Eskimo master
was London in English days."
We have been told, and warned.
That's some lovely quoting there Mac1.
Thanks for sharing. The story of displacement followed by displacement, until a point of effective erasure is achieved, felt like reading Bury my Heart at Wounded Knee, as I did years ago, and was similarly sobering.
And weirdly, though the 'redevelopment' plans for Gaza will probably never eventuate, they look like what we might call 'militarised gentrification' – an extremely violent form of what happens in our own cities.
I'm not sure if its appropriate to just post links. This analysis of Hungary on DW tv gave me a fuller understanding than I was getting from all other news sources added together.
https://youtu.be/LykbTn_sS4o?si=6SBdb8CtdTvTIFSB
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kim_Lane_Scheppele. This is the wiki of the contributor; she has cred!
Great to read in the ODT (14 April) of Simon Upton's clear, well-reasoned objections to the gold mine Santana Minerals has proposed for Central Otago. Upton is Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment.
He points out the long term problems likely to arise if everything does not go according to plan – and you can bet a dime to the Taj Mahal that it won't.
The big problem Santana has tried to obscure is that once the gold is all removed and the company departs, NZers will be left with a 2km-long tailings storage dam containing toxic waste – a time bomb just waiting for the next earthquake.
No prizes for guessing who will pay for the clean-up, assuming it is possible to effect repairs.
Same old story – we are being asked to trade our once-pristine environment for a few jobs.
Shane reckons we are worrying unnecessarily.
If I was a farmer receiving $400k from Fonterra today I would immediately use part of it to invest in a solar power system (including battery(s)) and swap my diesel-hungry vehicles for EV's.
Farms use quite a bit of power and also use their vehicles heaps. The latest solar systems pay themselves back in around 8 years….after that it is free power. Farms have plenty of room and roof space for such installations. Farms would not need to have to go into town to fill up with diesel or have it delivered and would be self-sufficient if there was a power cut due to the now regular storms.
You would be mad not to do it.
I’d fill up the urban assault vehicle and go for a joyride to burn off some
rubbersteam. Then, I’d go to my local FF rep who dubs as MP and whine about the weather, red-tape, and unsustainable price of diesel.I'd also put in hydro if a farmer has access to water. 24/7 supply and a higher supply in winter are great attributes and a great balance with solar.
Here is an example of a small project in Wales (youtube playlist – the first videos are about building the hut for the turbine so can skip to the more interesting stuff.) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2wKhwej06c&list=PLEZ2hvCDKUpEvvlrYbEDPYiRqdfGO7-c2
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/top/592264/word-travels-cook-strait-ferry-service-s-reputation-for-unreliability-among-overseas-tour-operators
Take a bow the national party you incompetent middle management morons
Evidently the COC saved us from a right royal cock up on the ferries purchase from Korea. Which was going to cost NZ Billions of $$$'s.
Rakuraku-Many people have commented on TS that the COC's ferries will cost us more than Labour's (including cancellation costs and onshore capital investment) and that they will be smaller and catastrophically only available 4 years later than Labour’s, leaving NZ with unreliable non rail-capable ferries over that period.
So can you please provide some proof/facts to support your statement.
Heard a rumour today that Epstein is living comfortably in Israel these days, I don't know whether that is fact or fiction ?
Apparently he walked.
slithered
What, walked on water to Israel ?
Is this masterpiece yours?
If not which genius came up with it?
C'est magnifique.
You’re a notorious non-linker and notorious one-liner who spreads conspiracy shit here aka trolling. Stick to social media if you cannot lift your game here.
@ BG @ 5.
There is plenty of popular low hanging fruit, policy wise for a united opposition to pick. This interview talks about folk with solar being able to sell surplus power to another consumer at a set contracted rate. Cut the ticket clipping corporates out of the equation.
I'm at pains to remind folk that while solar panels have largely been installed on the roof, ground mounted systems are occuring too.
From experience, their greatest attribute is ease of cleaning. Once you have strung a length of fishing nylon across the top of the array, to stop birds sitting on top edge, it's only the occasional deposit of guano and dust and pollen that needs hosing off.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/ninetonoon/audio/2019030867/group-urges-budget-subsidies-for-solar
I heard that interview…you are right gsays. I think Willis will come in with some crappy cheap loans scheme for solar in the budget….this would leave Labour an excellent "low-fruit" policy opening where they offer to subsidise through a grant 20-30% of the solar/battery installation costs.
I stood under a friend's ground-mounted solar panels last night, sheltering from the rain at a BBQ.
This article may well have been offered here before but for anyone who didn't catch it – please read it; it's long but points right at the heart of our challenge.
THE BIFURCATION MOMENT: WHAT HAPPENS WHEN THE WORLD CHANGES RULES by Mark A. Shryock
I can only offer a Facebook link, so suggest anyone interested (everyone, please!) uses the title to search google for it. How to get there #2.
"What this means in plain language: you are not powerless. At a bifurcation point, the system is searching for its next pattern. What people think, share, build, and do during this window becomes the template for what comes next."
please post the FB link.
if you click on the date or time beside or under the person's name who posted it, you can then copy from the address bar straight into the TS comment box.
https://www.facebook.com/MarkShryockArtist/posts/pfbid02CPNuiDkoFvhQDqXzELVBtQADXHpDxS3nafgXCDfqwcuECDrzkn7ZHnJYvfQFS4Ffl
Thanks! I just read the whole FB post (phew!) and was thrilled to have so many déjà vu moments of instant recognition. I guess it means I’m well aligned.
I shall bookmark it, before I forget.
Some of the most expensive real estate and their squillionaire owners in New Zealand are most unhappy that this 26ha industrial film studio development in Lake Hayes has got onto the Fast Track list.
Green light for controversial project opposed by wealthy neighbours | Otago Daily Times Online News
Fast Track team are clear that this would have been stopped under the RMA.
This is all great for the 149 business development financiers on the Cabinet list, but rich or poor you haven't got a chance to stop them.
Wonder what their exit price is for the great Ayrburn boondoggle / ego trip / money pit. Poking the neighbours hard enough with sharp enough stick that they take it over?
Labour should dump the fast-track process on day one. It is a disaster.
The Ayrburn development is NOT a screen hub. It is an entirely inappropriate, landscape wrecking, high density accommodation development masquerading as a screen hub. This neighbour to it knows exactly what is going on:
"Neighbouring resident Neil Green said he “strongly opposed” the development.
Green described the proposal as a “Trojan Horse”, arguing it was “a tactical manoeuvre to bypass the District Plan and secure a high-density accommodation in a rural zone, using a film studio as the vehicle”.
He said the proposal would affect “the quiet enjoyment of their properties, and the overall amenity values of the area”.
He also rejected the project’s economic case.“The economic case is ‘sketchy’ at best. It lacks independent verification and fails to justify why this specific, sensitive location is required for regional film infrastructure,” he said."
Paywalled: https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/residents-warn-ayrburn-screen-hub-a-trojan-horse-fear-hotel-scale-development-in-rural-lake-hayes/premium/SNWHZT5A5RBZ3LLVY7LFGLXQRQ/
From the same Link:
“Infrastructure Minister Chris Bishop said he wished to “express my broad support for projects which deliver positive outcomes for New Zealand, including the Ayrburn Screen Hub project”, describing the letter as reflecting the Government’s economic growth and infrastructure priorities.”
Chris Bishop is responsible for this mess.
Best bit is Poliviere voted against a 2012 private members bill that would have required waka-jumpers to face a bi-election.
@PierrePoilievre
The Carney Liberals did not win a majority government through a general election or today's by-elections. Instead, it was won through backroom deals with politicians who betrayed the people who voted for them.
https://x.com/PierrePoilievre/status/2043874763949445479
'Large liberal tent'
On Wednesday, longtime Conservative politician Marilyn Gladu switched parties to join Carney's government, saying Canada needs "a serious leader who can address the uncertainty that has arrived due to the unjustified American tariffs".
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/world/592339/mark-carney-clinches-majority-government-in-canadian-special-elections
So what defines a rouge state?
Or a terrorist state?
I'd suggest that the USA is the best example of what a terrorist state is these days.
Now they are doing it in our back yard.
Extrajudicial murder at it's worst. Once again with no evidence, and unsubstantiated allegations.
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/americas/us-strike-on-alleged-drug-boat-in-eastern-pacific-kills-2-southcom/3904576
Free USA !
/sarc
Not sure about "the best example", but the US of A is certainly an example.
Some will view state-sponsered terrorism as righteous, when that state is the US of A.
Maybe one "very stable genius" expected Iran’s authoritarian theocracy of 46 years to grovel at his feet – he, and Bibi, seem to view geopolitics through exceptional lenses.
Isn't the US blockade of Cuba economic terrorism, then?
Thanks – another example of economic terrorism / warfare by the US of A – nice one.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_warfare#Economic_sanctions
Rob Campbell wrote something so profound that I’ll just copy & paste it here without adding much other than that it ties in beautifully (for want of a better word) with a recent comment of mine (https://thestandard.nz/nationals-incredulous-plan-for-challenging-times/#comment-2059957).
https://newsroom.co.nz/2026/04/12/we-are-becoming-a-nation-of-strangers/
Crikey Taine Randell standing for NZFirst.