Summary
Health Coalition Aotearoa (HCA) has surveyed incumbent political parties on their support for HCA’s top twelve priorities across tobacco, alcohol, unhealthy food and public health infrastructure. Disappointingly, there was no response from National or NZ First.
There was support (mainly very supportive) for all HCA priorities from the Greens and Te Pāti Māori (TPM).Labour was very supportive of the three tobacco policies and strengthening the Healthy School Lunches programme. It was generally supportive of proposed revisions to the Sale and Supply of Alcohol Act, and the three policies to improve public policymaking (lobbying laws, OIA reform, and conflicts of interest management). It opposed the sugary drinks levy and lifting alcohol taxes.
ACT was generally supportive of two tobacco policies and conflicts of interest management but was neutral or opposed to all other prevention policies.
The left-leaning parties (plus the Opportunity Party, which was not directly polled) support HCA’s high-impact policy proposals.
Health Coalition Aotearoa’s (HCA) four Expert Panels identified the top three policy priorities each for tobacco, alcohol, unhealthy food, and public health infrastructure (see HCA’s Prevention Brief). HCA surveyed incumbent political parties on their level of support for these twelve policies. A Political Forum on Prevention in Wellington on 25 August 2026 discussed these policies. The aim of this briefing is to present these findings.
The public health problem
Tobacco, alcohol, obesity and unhealthy diets cause about a quarter of NZ’s health loss (>350,000 disability-adjusted life-years lost every year1). Many successful policies have been implemented internationally yet remain unimplemented in NZ.
All HCA policy priorities have majority public support.2 A recent series in the NZ Medical Journal found 77-85% support for eight tobacco/vaping policies,3 54-84% for ten alcohol policies,4 62-87% for ten food environment policies,5 and 74-89% for four lobbying policies.6 There was majority support from voters for all political parties on many of the policies.
Findings
The survey results from incumbent political parties are shown in Figure 1.
It was extremely disappointing that National and NZ First did not respond to the survey despite multiple reminders and neither did they provide spokespeople for the Political Forum on Prevention. There were no policies on any health topics or on lobbying laws to strengthen the integrity of public policymaking on either party’s website.
As with the 2023 survey, there is a clear gradient of support across the political spectrum, with left-wing parties being largely supportive and ACT, as the only right-wing party responding, being largely unsupportive. Comments submitted along with the ratings are shown in the Appendix.
Figure 1. The Health Coalition Aotearoa survey results.
Tobacco
HCA priority policies aim to achieve the tobacco endgame by a licensing system for tobacco and vape outlets with sinking lids on nicotine levels and outlet numbers. In addition, regulations to prevent tobacco industry interference in public policymaking and strengthening quit programmes were priorities. Labour, Greens, and TPM were strongly supportive while ACT was generally supportive or neutral. Labour will also reintroduce the SmokeFree Generation legislation.
Alcohol
Strengthening multiple provisions in the alcohol legislation, including the embedding of Te Tiriti o Waitangi, was generally or strongly supported by Labour, Greens, and TPM but opposed by ACT. Raising the alcohol excise tax by 50% to lift prices by 10% was strongly supported by TPM, generally supported by the Greens but opposed by Labour and ACT.
Unhealthy food
There was strong support from Labour, Greens and TPM on sustainable and sufficient finding for Ka Ora, Ka Ako | Healthy Lunches Programme. Strong support was also provided by Greens and TPM, with Labour being neutral, on restricting junk food marketing to children. A sugary drinks industry levy (now implemented in >100 countries) was also supported by Greens and TPM but opposed by Labour. ACT was opposed to all policies to improve the healthiness of food environments.
Public Health Infrastructure
Greens and TPM were strongly supportive and Labour generally supportive of all three HCA policies (lobbying laws, stronger OIA laws, manage conflicts of interest), while ACT was neutral or generally supportive.
The Opportunity party recently released its ‘Healthy People’ and ‘Clean-up Politics’ policies. These are strong policy positions and closely align with the HCA priorities across all four topic areas.
Conclusion
Policies for reinstating the endgame for tobacco, getting the Healthy School Lunches Programme back to an optimum design, and enacting policies to better protect public policymaking from undue private interests had the widest support, especially from the left-wing parties. The absence of National and NZ First spoke strongly to their lack of interest in prevention.
What this Briefing adds
- Evidence-based prevention policies to reduce the impact of harm products are largely supported by Labour, Greens, TPM, and Opportunity, largely opposed by ACT, and totally ignored by National and NZ First.
- There is general support from left-leaning parties for strong tobacco laws, lobbying laws, reforming alcohol laws, restricting sponsorship and marketing for both alcohol and unhealthy food.
- The anti-tax stances of Labour and ACT (and presumably National and NZ First) mean that well-proven policies like sugary drinks industry levies and raising the alcohol excise tax will be a bigger challenge.
Implications for policy and practice
- NZ urgently needs cross-party policies including endgame tobacco legislation, rebuilding the Healthy School Lunches Programme to better serve children, and enacting lobbying laws, revising the OIA, and better managing conflicts of interest to rebuild the integrity and trust in public policymaking.
- The prospects for serious prevention policies being implemented seem far more likely with a Labour-led coalition than a National-led coalition.
Authors’ details
Professor Boyd Swinburn, School of Population Health, University of Auckland, and Co-Chair, Health Coalition Aotearoa
Jason Alexander, Hāpai Te Hauora, and Co-Chair Health Coalition Aotearoa
Appendix
Other 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.