Source: Hapai Te Hauora
Hāpai Te Hauora is devastated by the latest New Zealand Health Survey, which shows Māori smoking progress has stalled for the first time in more than ten years. Māori leadership and tireless advocacy have saved countless lives, yet this year’s results show another barrier placed in front of that progress.
Only days after the sector gathered to honour the people who have carried the smokefree kaupapa for decades, today’s data tells a very different story.
“This doesn’t come as a surprise. Last week we stood together celebrating generations of advocates who fought to protect our people. Today we are met with data that feels like a slap in the face,” says Jacqui Harema, CEO of Hāpai Te Hauora.
The survey shows Māori daily smoking has increased from 14.8% to 15% (around 99,000 adults). This rise highlights worsening tobacco harm that is felt most sharply in poorer communities, where smoking rates remain higher and tobacco outlets are heavily concentrated. Māori women living in the poorest areas are now more than six times more likely to smoke daily than those in the wealthiest areas.
For Hāpai, the concern is not the small shift in numbers, but the fact that Māori smoking is no longer declining after a decade of progress.
“Tobacco still kills thousands every year in Aotearoa, and Māori bear the heaviest burden of that harm,” says Jasmine Graham, General Manager of Hāpai Te Hauora. “The issue here is the loss of momentum. Māori smoking has stopped falling. That tells us the environment around our whānau has become harder, not easier.”
Hāpai says the stall in progress did not happen by accident. It reflects the conditions Māori communities have been pushed into – shaped by recent political decisions, weakened protections, and growing commercial pressure from the tobacco industry. Aotearoa has also dropped from 2nd to 53rd in the global ranking for protection against tobacco industry interference, the largest fall recorded in recent years.
“This is what happens when policies prioritise profit over people,” says Graham. “When protections are removed and industry interests are given space to grow, Māori communities feel the impact first and feel it the hardest.”
The consequences of stalled progress are immediate and real: more preventable illness, more deaths caused by tobacco-related disease, more rangatahi exposed to nicotine, increased pressure on already stretched Māori health providers, and a greater risk of intergenerational harm becoming entrenched again.
Hāpai Te Hauora is calling for urgent, equity-focused action. This includes restoring proven smokefree protections – such as reducing the number of tobacco retailers and cutting nicotine levels in cigarettes so they are no longer addictive. Hāpai is also calling for tobacco to be removed from dairies, a major reduction in tobacco and vape retailers in poorer areas and raising the legal purchase age to at least 20.
Finally, Hāpai te Hauora says long-term, stable funding for Māori-led solutions is essential to rebuild momentum.
“Our communities and services on the ground have done everything asked of them,” says Harema. “The halt in Māori smoking progress is a warning sign that cannot be ignored. It shows that when protections are removed, Māori carry the heaviest consequences. This can still be a turning point – but only if decision-makers centre Māori health, restore strong protections, and invest in solutions that already work for our communities.”
