ABSTRACT

This chapter discusses New Zealand’s approach to regulating tobacco, alcohol and unhealthy foods and compares some of the drivers and frameworks of the relevant regulations. Tobacco is regulated in several ways including: sales permitted only to persons of a certain age, point of sale restrictions, packaging requirements, price controls, tax measures, advertising prevention and areas where smoking is not permitted. Alcohol is also regulated in a variety of ways including: sales permitted only to persons of a certain age, licences required to sell alcohol, hour restrictions on sales, advertising limitations and taxation. Overall, alcohol is less regulated than tobacco, and unhealthy foods are even less regulated. Unhealthy foods are subject to some labelling regulation and light-handed advertising codes. This pattern of degrees of regulation is found in many jurisdictions. It broadly reflects the degrees of harm that successive governments have felt compelled to address through regulation. The approach to regulation in New Zealand also reveals that in some instances regulatory policy is triggered by oshore (including Australian) regulatory developments. Although the trigger for regulation may come from oshore, the driver of that regulation can easily become local health and social concerns.