NZ plain packs law by year’s end

New Zealand’s Prime Minister John Key has said that a standardized tobacco packaging bill that is currently held up in parliament should be resumed and become law by the end of the year, according to a story by Stacey Kirk for Independent Newspapers.

The government has held up its bill – currently at the select committee stage – while it awaited the outcome of the legal actions taken against Australia, the only country so far to have a standardized tobacco packaging law in effect.

“I was waiting, and I think the view I initially took was given Australia was in the middle of this court case it probably didn’t make sense for us to embark on that, and then potentially face exactly the same costs for the taxpayer in defending another legal action,” Key said.

But he said that he was now confident New Zealand was on firm legal ground.

“Late last year I asked for advice on that matter, and the advice I got back was that they felt we were on very firm ground and didn’t feel there was really any issues,” he said.

“A number of other[s] have moved on plain packaging and were doing so without court cases being brought against them.”