Terrible advice from MOH

It is incredible that senior public servants tendered such advice. To state as a fact that “The right to be smoke free is entrenched in Te Tiriti o Waitangi” is beyond overwrought.

Professional sane advice could say something along the lines of “Some groups argue that the right to be smoke free ….” but to state a highly contentious interpretation as a fact just means that Ministers can’t actually rely on such advice.

Incidentally for those who like their history, Hone Hone cut down the flagpole to protest the Government’s new tax on various products, including tobacco which was one shilling per pound! And Hone was the first signatory to the Treaty!

Heke’s rebellion was successful in getting the Government to repeal the tax on tobacco, and instead introduce property rates.

So for the Ministry of Health to state as an uncontested fact that the Treaty entrenches the right for Maori to be smoke free, is not just wrong, but historically illiterate.