Irish Examiner view: Stubbed out by a heavy hand

NZ tobacco ban

Authoritarians who like the smack of firm government will, no doubt, also applaud New Zealand’s latest intervention into matters of personal health after junior minister Ayesha Verrall said that purchasing tobacco will be made illegal within four years, meaning that children currently 14 will be the first generation to be prevented from purchasing products enjoyed by their elders.

There are many people who admire the brusque, no nonsense, approach which New Zealanders adopt to the complex challenges of life, much in the same way they envy the latent take-no-prisoners power of the All Blacks as they enter a rolling maul at the top of their game.

Jacinda Arden, that country’s 41-year Labour leader, was feted for her early responses to the threat of Covid-19 ― close the country, no international travel in or out, and then a snap lockdown in August after one case was identified in Auckland. Now omicron is likely to keep the borders sealed for longer while the country espouses a two-tier system of rights and obligations for its citizenry depending on their vaccination status. During a period of “red” alert the unvaccinated will not be able to gather in groups larger than 10 and will be barred from restaurants, bars, gyms and hairdressers. 71% of New Zealand adults are vaccinated but with large gaps among the Maori population. The Maori Party have likened the system to a “real-life Squid Game.” Nations have to adopt those practices which they feel are proportionate and which their own public will support, and it ill behoves any of us to suggest we know better about the machinery they choose to deploy to counter the worst global health crisis any of us can remember. But we can have something to say when New Zealand is referenced as a helpful precedent in our own domestic debates.