Health Coalition Aotearoa has released the results of its election policy survey, revealing a political divide on support for evidence-based measures to reduce harm from tobacco, alcohol and unhealthy food, and to protect public policymaking from undue industry influence.
The survey, which was sent to all incumbent political parties ahead of the election, assessed support for Health Coalition Aotearoa’s top prevention priorities.
The findings show strongest support from left-leaning parties for policies that would improve health outcomes, reduce pressure on the health system and boost productivity through prevention. Survey findings are available in the PHCC Briefing.
“Disappointingly, National and New Zealand First chose neither to complete the survey nor attend our Political Forum on Prevention, held at Parliament in August,” says Health Coalition Aotearoa co-chair Professor Boyd Swinburn, a population nutrition and global health researcher at the University of Auckland.
“This pattern of National, and often other Government Coalition partners, not fronting up to invitations to engage on key policy issues has been observed by multiple organisations seeking policy discussions on health in this pre-election period,” Swinburn says.
The survey was based on priorities identified by Health Coalition Aotearoa’s expert panels as the most evidence-based and cost-effective policies for preventing harm from the commercial determinants of health, as outlined in its Prevention Brief 2026.
“What we’re really looking for is areas of general support across the political spectrum so that effective prevention policies might get advanced and sustained, rather than flip-flopping with every election,” Swinburn says.
The policies receiving the widest support were reinstating the tobacco endgame legislation and restoring the Healthy School Lunches Programme to an optimum design. Support was strongest among the Green Party, Te Pāti Māori and Labour.
The findings also showed broad support among those parties for stronger lobbying rules, improved management of conflicts of interest, and greater transparency in decision-making processes. ACT was the only right-leaning party to respond to the survey and was generally supportive of some tobacco and conflicts of interest measures but unsupportive of most other prevention policies.
Notably, National and New Zealand First did not respond to the survey, leaving voters without direct answers on their positions regarding these priority prevention measures.
Although not included in the survey, The Opportunity Party recently released its Healthy People and Clean Up Politics policies, which are closely aligned with Health Coalition Aotearoa’s priorities.
“Enacting policies is, let’s face it, a lot of work, so if we could see progress on tobacco endgame measures, healthy school lunches and lobbying reform under the next government, that would be fantastic,” says Swinburn.
HCA co-chair Jason Alexander says it is disappointing to see parties steering away from taxes and, to a lesser extent, alcohol law reform, including embedding Te Tiriti in legislation.
“Some parties are shying away from alcohol law reform and taxes on unhealthy commodities, which is disappointing given the substantial evidence of their potential to improve health outcomes and equity.”
Tobacco, alcohol, obesity and unhealthy diets cause about a quarter of healthy years of life lost to preventable death and disability (more than 350,000 disability-adjusted life-years lost every year), with these harms falling inequitably on Māori and Pacific people.
Swinburn says the findings are notable because public support for prevention policies is consistently high across areas such as tobacco control, alcohol harm reduction, healthier food environments and stronger protections against industry influence.
Comments provided by the political parties
Tobacco and vaping
Labour:
Labour will create a licensing regime for all sellers of nicotine and tobacco products. This will mean much stricter controls, with licence holders required to meet a range of criteria, including a ‘fit and proper person test’.
Labour will also reintroduce Smokefree Generation laws to save lives, prevent harm from tobacco, and ease pressure on our health system. Christopher Luxon’s Government rushed to repeal Labour’s life-saving smokefree laws, gave millions in tax breaks to tobacco companies, and has failed to meet our Smokefree 2025 goal.
In government, Labour will implement Dr Ayesha Verrall’s tobacco transparency bill to stop industry interference in health policy. We will introduce far greater transparency to prevent tobacco industry influence, including lobbying regulations (in line with NZ’s commitment to the Framework Convention for Tobacco Control), disallowing political donations from tobacco companies, and requiring disclosure of all marketing investments by tobacco companies.
Labour is committed to ensuring people have the support they need to quit smoking and vaping. We will introduce New Zealand’s first dedicated quit vaping service, with targeted support for young people. NZ’s youth vaping rates are around double Australia’s. It is clear we need to take stronger action on vaping as a public health concern.
Te Pāti Māori:
Nicotine licensing scheme: Te Pāti Māori will support any initiative that aims to help whānau quit smoking.
We have seen the impacts that tobacco lobbying can have on our communities in this term of Government when NZ First reversed our smokefree targets. We strongly support measures to prevent tobacco industry influence.
Tobacco retailers are four times more prevalent in Māori communities, and we know Māori are more than twice as likely as non-Māori to vape daily. We will work to eliminate inequities in smoking and vaping prevalence in Aotearoa and provide more comprehensive cessation services for both.
Green Party:
The Green Party recognises the significant health burden that tobacco use places unequally on our communities. The Green Party views tobacco control as essential to curb tobacco-related health harm, and a key policy in preventing ill health.
Tobacco industry influence: The Green Party is entirely supportive of the above measures to curb the impact tobacco lobbying has on passing commonsense regulation to curb tobacco-associated harm.
The Green Party is concerned with the unequal health impact that vaping and smoking has, particularly for rangatahi Māori. We are supportive of much greater investment in culturally relevant, evidence-based cessation support services for all, and, in particular, young people.
ACT:
Would need to understand what ‘greater transparency’ meant.
Alcohol
Labour:
Our focus will be on taking action on the link between sports and alcohol. We will scale up Health New Zealand’s work to buy out alcohol sponsorship by working alongside sports organisations and clubs.
The current National Government has loosened our alcohol laws and made it harder for communities to have a say on alcohol availability in their area. Labour is committed to protecting communities from alcohol harm. That’s why we oppose the reduction in local input to decision-making in the Sale and Supply of Alcohol (Improving Alcohol Regulation) Amendment Bill.
Communities should have a strong voice in decisions that affect their health and should be involved in deciding how best to reduce harm. We strongly support the participation of Māori in protecting communities from alcohol harm.
Re excise tax, Labour has one tax policy: a simple, targeted Capital Gains Tax on the sale of investment property, to fund free doctor’s visits, free prescriptions, free cervical cancer screening, and free maternity scans. Nine out of 10 New Zealanders won’t pay the tax, but everyone will get three free doctor’s visits each year. This will go directly back into the health system.
Te Pāti Māori:
We know the negative impact that alcohol has had, and continues to have, on our communities. We have a longstanding policy to ban all alcohol marketing.
Alcohol continues to be a tool of colonisation used to subjugate our people, undermine resistance, and perpetuate colonial rule. We have called for Te Tiriti o Waitangi to be embedded in the Sale and Supply of Alcohol Act. Māori need to be empowered to make decisions about how to best address alcohol harm in their communities.
We have called for increasing alcohol prices to reduce consumption in our submission on the Sale and Supply of Alcohol (Improving Alcohol Regulation) Amendment Bill. We suggested implementing a minimum unit price, recognising that, when Scotland introduced this policy, alcohol-related deaths dropped by 13.4 per cent. We are open to any policy changes that will reduce alcohol-related harm.
Green Party:
Reform the Sale and Supply of Alcohol Act 2012 to tighten protections on availability and marketing, reduce national maximum trading hours, delay online deliveries and mandate an age check, ban all alcohol marketing, and raise the purchase age to 20: The Green Party is supportive of the majority of these recommendations, recognising the difference in harm between on- and off-licences.
The Green Party is proud of our history in advocating for the banning of alcohol advertising in sports through the Alcohol Harm Minimisation Bill and our consistent advocacy over our term in Parliament to reduce alcohol-related harm, including advertising to children.
The Green Party is supportive of embedding Te Tiriti o Waitangi in the Sale and Supply of Alcohol Act to make clear the Crown’s obligations to equality in health outcomes, including reducing the inequality of alcohol-related harm on tangata whenua.
The Green Party is supportive of raising alcohol excise tax, while recognising the role that on-licences with responsible hosts play in reducing alcohol-related harm. We are highly supportive of investing additional revenue in prevention and treatment, and ensuring revenue from alcohol excise tax is reinvested into the community to prevent further harm.
Unhealthy Foods
Labour:
Ka Ora, Ka Ako, Healthy School Lunches programme: A Labour Government will reinstate free, fresh, and locally made school lunches. The National [sic] Government’s cuts to the programme have turned it into a disaster. Healthy school lunches are a practical way we can make sure students have access to nutritious food, as families struggle with rising bills and the cost of living.
Legislate to protect children from exposure to all forms of unhealthy food marketing in the places they learn, live, and play: All children deserve access to fresh, healthy food to help them live, learn, and thrive. It is incredibly difficult to limit all exposure to advertising across platforms. National have proposed a social media ban, which would impact the amount of marketing young people are exposed to. In Government, Labour will assess the impact of existing legislation to understand how best to reduce exposure to unhealthy food.
Labour has one tax policy: a simple, targeted Capital Gains Tax on the sale of investment property, to fund free doctor’s visits, free prescriptions, free cervical cancer screening, and free maternity scans. Nine out of 10 New Zealanders won’t pay the tax, but everyone will get three free doctor’s visits each year. Every dollar raised will go directly to our health system.
Te Pāti Māori:
Ka Ora, Ka Ako: No tamariki deserves to go hungry at school. We were appalled by the government’s defunding of this programme, and we will commit to providing permanent funding for the wellbeing of our mokopuna.
We have an explicit policy to restrict unhealthy food and drink marketing that targets children, and we are committed to making healthy kai more affordable for whānau.
Sugary drinks tax: Te Pāti Māori has long supported this initiative.
Green Party:
The Green Party is supportive of increased, permanent funding for Ka Ora, Ka Ako to enable providers to supply meals that meet evidence-based nutritional guidelines, to offer schools their own contracting arrangements that include locally produced kai, and support a greater number of schools being able to access the programme.
The Green Party support greater control over what is advertised to children, including alcohol and unhealthy food marketing.
The Green Party is supportive of investigating a sugary drinks levy and are supportive of providing free dental services to all New Zealanders.
Public Health Infrastructure
Labour:
Bring lobbying rules up to international standards including: a mandatory code of conduct, a public register, cooling off periods before politicians become lobbyists, and establishing an Integrity Commission: We will release our election manifesto in due course, where it will be clear we are committed to action on this issue. As mentioned, we will legislate to make sure New Zealand meets its commitment under the Framework Convention for Tobacco Control.
Re strengthening the OIA: Transparency is extremely important, particularly when it comes to our health system and public health laws. Information has been increasingly difficult to access under this National-led Government. In 2024, we also held the Government accountable for the unusual surge in non-disclosure agreements signed by Health NZ staff to hide cuts to the health system.
Holding the Government accountable for the rushed changes to smoking laws, Health New Zealand’s financial situation, the state of the health system, and other matters has been made extremely difficult due to information being withheld. Ombudsman complaints and investigations have seen some information released, such as the policy documents compiled by Casey Costello during the repeal of smokefree legislation, but there is more that can be done to increase transparency. New Zealanders deserve to know what decisions are being made about their health system, and we will assess how best to increase the transparency and consistency of information released.
We are committed to making sure lobbyists do not influence public health decisions. As mentioned, we will legislate to make sure New Zealand meets its commitment under the Framework Convention for Tobacco Control. We will release further policy in due course.
Te Pāti Māori:
Te Pāti Māori supports this initiative. Policy decisions, particularly in the health system, need to be made with the wellbeing of people at the forefront, not corporate interests.
OIA: We support greater transparency and public participation throughout all aspects of government.
The public health system must be protected from undue influence for the wellbeing of all people in Aotearoa.
Green Party:
The Green Party is highly supportive of updating lobbying rules, including a strict code of ethics, donation limits, a public register of meetings, and cooling-off periods before politicians become lobbyists. We are open to establishing an Integrity Commission.
The Green Party is supportive of strengthening the Official Information Act to support greater transparency and public participation, with stronger rules around the timely, proactive release of information, and greater consequences for agencies and Ministers who skirt their responsibilities under the Act.
The Green Party is highly supportive of better management of conflicts of interest, with additional protections for higher-risk sectors like tobacco, unhealthy food and alcohol, mining and fishing, and real estate.
ACT:
Strengthening the OIA: Would need to understand what this would look like.
