Author: MIL-OSI Publisher

The advent of vaping slowed progress on reducing smoking, especially for Māori and Pacific teens.

The rise of vaping in Aotearoa, New Zealand may be slowing progress in reducing smoking and widening inequities between Māori and Pacific adolescents and others of the same age.
 
Published in The Lancet Regional Health – Western Pacific, the study analysed data on vaping and smoking from almost 600,000 year 10 students aged 14 to 15 years.
 
“The emergence of vaping appears to have undermined progress in reducing regular smoking, especially among Māori and Pacific youth who were already facing disproportionate tobacco-related harm,” says Dr Lucy Hardie, a population health researcher at Waipapa Taumata Rau, University of Auckland.

The researchers, who were from the Universities of Otago, Auckland and Sydney, and the Daffodil Centre for cancer research, compared smoking trends for different ethnicities from 2003 to 2009 (before vaping became common in Aotearoa) with those from 2010 to 2024 (when vaping became increasingly common).
 
“We found that the introduction of vaping may have impacted young Māori more than other groups, as progress in reducing smoking slowed more in young Māori than in the other groups,” says Hardie.
 
Between 2003 and 2024, rates of regular smoking among 14 to 15-year-olds declined substantially for Māori, Pacific, European, and Asian adolescents. However, these declines in smoking slowed for Māori, Pacific, and European youth after vaping emerged in 2010.
 
Māori health and public health researcher Associate Professor Andrew Waa from the University of Otago said the findings are especially concerning for Māori and Pacific youth, who already have much higher rates of smoking and vaping than their peers.

We sometimes hear that e-cigarettes might be a harm-reduction device for Māori and Pacific youth, by reducing or stopping them from smoking,” Waa says.

“Our study shows the opposite. Rather than supporting claims that vaping reduces harms for Māori and Pacific youth, vaping has substantially added to them. It has become a major additional source of nicotine dependence, carries its own health risks, and appears to have led to more adolescents smoking.”
 
In 2024, regular smoking among 14 to 15-year-olds was approximately 6.2 percent for Māori, 3.3 percent for Pacific, and 2 percent for European adolescents. However, the study found that if each group’s pre-2010 smoking trend had continued, the estimated 2024 prevalences would have been 4.2 percent for Māori, 1.8 percent for Pacific, and 0.7 percent for European adolescents.
 
For every 1,000 students, there were 20 more Māori, 15 more Pacific and 13 more European students smoking regularly in 2024 than there would have been if pre-2010 smoking trends had continued.

Waa says the implications extend beyond biomedical harm and into Indigenous rights and obligations under Te Tiriti o Waitangi and international frameworks.
 
“Before colonisation, Māori were free from nicotine addiction. Today, nicotine from cigarettes and vapes undermines Māori self-determination by embedding dependence within our communities.”
 
He says governments have duties under Te Tiriti o Waitangi and the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control to reduce health inequities and protect Māori youth from commercial determinants of health.
 
“Policies that enable easy access to vaping products don’t just miss the mark on health – they also fall short of Te Tiriti o Waitangi commitments and Aotearoa’s international obligations to address inequities affecting Indigenous peoples.”
 
Waa said urgent action is needed to align policy with those obligations.
 
“We should be closing the door on all sources of nicotine dependence, not opening new ones. Protecting Māori youth is a Te Tiriti o Waitangi obligation, and protecting all young people is a core public health responsibility.”
 
About the study
The study, “Trends in smoking prevalence before and after the emergence of vaping in Aotearoa/New Zealand among 14 to 15-year-olds identifying as Māori, Pacific, European, or Asian: An interrupted time series analysis of repeated cross-sectional data, 2003–2024”, is published on 5 November in the The Lancet Regional Health – Western Pacific.

The collapse of after-hours and emergency care in Upper Hutt is a warning sign for the rest of New Zealand unless the underlying problems facing general practice are urgently addressed, says the General Practice Owners Association (GenPro).

“The situation in Upper Hutt as reported by media is the canary in the coal mine for general practice,” says Dr Angus Chambers, Chair of GenPro. The Lower North Island city of 47,500 people currently has no hospital, no urgent or after-hours medical service, and a severe shortage of GPs.

Residents are forced to travel to already overcrowded emergency departments in Lower Hutt for even basic treatments.
 
“Upper Hutt residents are bearing the brunt of a national healthcare crisis,” Dr Chambers says. “The same lack of access to urgent and after-hours care is now emerging across New Zealand.”

Daytime GP appointments are increasingly difficult to secure, pushing up demand for urgent care. Yet providing urgent and after-hours services is becoming financially and operationally unsustainable due to:

Unsociable working hours and difficulty attracting staff;
Ongoing GP shortages and burnout;
Competition from heavily subsidised telehealth providers.

“Providing urgent care has become unviable for many clinics,” says Dr Chambers. “At the heart of the problem is a funding model that simply doesn’t reflect the real cost of running general practice and after-hours services.”

He warns that too few doctors are choosing to train or stay in general practice. Many are retiring early or moving overseas, leading to closures and cutbacks nationwide — as seen in Upper Hutt in 2022 when the local after-hours clinic shut its doors.

Dr Chambers acknowledges recent steps by the Government, including increased patient subsidies, modernising the funding model, and new funding for urgent and after-hours services.

“These are positive moves,” he says, “but they’re not enough to reverse years of underinvestment. Without bold, sustained action, we’ll see more communities facing the same crisis as Upper Hutt.”

“Telehealth is part of the solution, but not a panacea,” Dr Chambers notes. “Patients overwhelmingly prefer face-to-face consultations — and for many conditions, especially involving young children, that’s what provides the safest and most effective care.”
 
GenPro is urging the Government to increase funding for both accident-related care under ACC and general health care under Te Whatu Ora, ensuring it reflects the true costs of running modern general practices and urgent care.

“Adequate, sustainable funding will help retain and attract the GPs New Zealand desperately needs,” says Dr Chambers. “If we don’t act now, Upper Hutt won’t be the last community to have restricted local health care.”

5 November 2025 – “Financial stability risks remain higher than in recent years”, says Reserve Bank Governor Christian Hawkesby in releasing the Financial Stability Report this morning.

Fragmentation of global trade and finance, and ongoing uncertainty continue to present risks. Elevated global equity valuations, in areas such as tech stocks, and growing government debt levels in many advanced economies are also vulnerabilities. As a small open economy, New Zealand would be exposed to any impacts on global economic activity or volatility in financial markets.

“Underperformance in parts of the New Zealand economy such as retail and hospitality is creating challenging conditions for households and businesses. Loan defaults have picked up, although they remain low compared to during the Global Financial Crisis. Lower interest rates and high commodity prices are supporting some sectors, including agriculture,” explains Mr Hawkesby.

Banks remain well placed to manage the current uncertainty. Strong lending standards, including loan-to-value limits, have helped to restrict the amount of high-risk lending in the system. As demonstrated by our recent stress test, capital buffers would allow banks to cope with a significant worsening of the economy, while continuing to provide credit to support any recovery.

“To promote a resilient financial system that balances stability and depositor protection with competition and efficiency, we are currently assessing feedback on proposals for key capital settings and getting input from international experts. We intend to announce a decision in December.

“We are also closely monitoring impacts from the introduction of the Depositor Compensation Scheme in July. Some non-bank deposit takers have seen deposit inflows as customers spread their money to maximise coverage and returns,” Mr Hawkesby said.

In the insurance sector, property insurers have benefited from relatively few significant claims events and improved conditions in global reinsurance markets.

Health insurers, however, are facing significant growth in claims costs. This is resulting in operating losses and driving up customer premiums, as insurers look to restore margins.

“Results from our 2024 Cyber Capability survey show that regulated entities report they are generally aligned to our guidance on cyber resilience. However, there is room for improvement, with cyber and operational risks remaining focus areas of our supervisory work,” Mr Hawkesby said.

More information

November 2025 Financial Stability Report: https://govt.us20.list-manage.com/track/click?u=bd316aa7ee4f5679c56377819&id=a359d486cc&e=f3c68946f8

Reserve Bank to ease LVR restrictions: https://govt.us20.list-manage.com/track/click?u=bd316aa7ee4f5679c56377819&id=aeb7f765d7&e=f3c68946f8

See our recent bulletin outlining findings from our 2025 Bank Stress Test: https://govt.us20.list-manage.com/track/click?u=bd316aa7ee4f5679c56377819&id=b8c8906040&e=f3c68946f8

Reaction from Cindy Baxter, chair, Kiwis Against Seabed Mining, reaction to the government's announced plans to change the Fast Track Approvals Act.

“This is a fundamental undermining of democracy.

“On behalf of tens of thousands of Kiwis, we have opposed destructive seabed mining for 20 years.  The idea that we are ‘stalling progress’ simply because we may appeal is absurd. The Government wants to lock the public out entirely, but the EPA panels are doing their job thoroughly, despite the constraints already placed on them.”

“Wannabe seabed miners Trans Tasman Resources knows its application is full of holes: it hasn't done its homework. It needs Shane Jones to intervene in order to get this destructive project over the line.”