Stuff report headline "Minister seeking tougher accommodation supplement criteria claims $1000 a week housing allowance". Notes "Upston wouldn’t answer... questions about whether she contributes more than 40% of her income towards her accommodation costs." Appalling. tinyurl.com/2bnf6d5c

More evidence that the current govt's approach to tobacco policy is not what people want. Prof Chris Bullen explains a new Health Coalition Aotearoa briefing: www.rnz.co.nz/national/pro...

Researchers warn the tobacco industry has a long history of using concerns about illicit tobacco to argue against stronger tobacco control measures. Responses to illicit trade in Aotearoa must not come at the expense of policies that reduce smoking harm. @janethoek.bsky.social tinyurl.com/ytu8hucc

Our new Briefing examines illicit tobacco, dispels tobacco industry arguments, and explains how NZ can avoid problems Australia faces: www.phcc.org.nz/briefing/res...

And the tobacco companies hook another generation to their deadly products. How many more? www.huffpost.com/entry/gen-z-...

Excellent commentary by Dr Carolyn Dresler. "It’s time to phase out the sale of commercial tobacco products." Looking forward to seeing how NZ political parties propose ending the tobacco epidemic. tinyurl.com/5n82a2k9

Wild idea = What if this Government quit the excuses, wishful thinking and 2.9 billion in tax cuts for mega landlords and actually funded conservation? 🤔 Full article on newsroom.co.nz

Peters's comment re Luxon emails ""I've been around a long time, longer than anybody else here... the view was if it should be disclosed, disclose it if there's no good reason not to. If you can release it, release it..." tinyurl.com/3kb3mcnd Just what Costello did with the mystery tobacco doc?

🚭The journey to a smokefree generation 🚭 With the Tobacco & Vapes Bill completing its passage through Parliament and ahead of it becoming law, we've been taking a look at some of the key moments of its journey. 👉 Swipe through the images below to see how far we've come!

"The Government passed new urgency under legislation last night, hitting floods that occupied business premises without permission with instant fines. Errant waters that were fined multiple times would be jailed." www.emilywrites.co.nz/coalition-go...

Could Aotearoa's govt repair the damage done when it followed a tobacco industry agenda and repealed smokefree measures? UK suggests how: "the tobacco industry should pay through a levy to reduce the harm they cause by funding these crucial services across the UK". www.bbc.com/news/article...

Our CEO, Sheila Duffy, is welcoming the strong measures in the UK Government's Tobacco and Vapes Bill which has completed the Westminster parliamentary process. Read here - ashscotland.org.uk/ash-scotland...

Thank you Dr Peter Prinsley MP for your steadfast support for the Tobacco and Vapes Bill👏 As an ear, nose and throat surgeon, he’s seen first-hand the real damage smoking causes 💔 Grateful for experts speaking up to protect public health 🚭

RNZ report on illicit tobacco states "Minister Costello said it was not her practise [sic] to ask those she meets with to disclose potential conflicts." (tinyurl.com/3wrw67n5)Rai... further questions about who has shaped the entirely illogical direction she has taken in tobacco policy.

🚨Big news! 🚨 We are delighted that the Tobacco and Vapes Bill has cleared Parliament, paving the way for the UK to introduce a smokefree generation and bring an end to tobacco-related harm in the years to come.

UK's Tobacco and Vapes Bill represents a triumph of evidence over tobacco industry disinformation. Here's hoping the TFG will quickly be followed by other endgame measures and help set new international precedents.

A new report pleads for the coalition Government to reverse its cuts to the science sector if it wants to see it profit

The same people will say “someone should do something about the homeless because they’re a blight” and then complain when someone does something about it that “they didn’t earn it“

Please consider signing; this petition focuses on young people and reducing inequities, and it's a great idea (fuel crisis or no fuel crisis!) our.actionstation.org.nz/petitions/fr...

the issue seems to be that contracting private companies creates a profit motive, and profits are highest for (ultra)processed and unhealthy foods I get that schools face financial pressure, but they also have a responsibility to create an enabling and healthy environment for children

You can read more about tobacco industry tactics on @tcrgbath.bsky.social's Tobacco Tactics webpage. 🚭 Tobacco Tactics details key issues in tobacco control and focuses on the global tobacco industry and those connected to or interacting with it. See the page here: www.tobaccotactics.org

An important analysis; we should all be working to avoid the OIA from being weakened.

It’s just so special how every politician in this story, whatever their position, articulates it succinctly except Luxon who clearly has about three potential non-answers running through his brain and decides to mash them into one word salad. www.rnz.co.nz/news/politic...

As we celebrate the Artemis II mission, let's remember these remarkable Black women trailblazers, whose brilliant calculations were integral to the initial Apollo 11 mission: Katharine G. Johnson, Mary W. Jackson and Dorothy Vaughn. 🚀🌌

"This 80 year old Foreign Minister wants you to know he's thinking about how you and your kids piss, shit and fuck all the time and wants legislation to ensure he knows exactly what genitalia everyone has and use that to stop people using the toilet, joining sports clubs, and receiving healthcare."

Sure there’s no reason to be concerned that the fundamentalist Christian bloc in New Zealand has been given even more power this week, that never leads to anything bad happening like say, patriarchal views actively being normalised by those who care about proximity to power & not at all about women.

BOOM! Greenpeace Aotearoa has won its greenwashing case against Fonterra. Fonterra — NZ’s biggest polluter — was found to have broken the law with misleading butter packaging falsely claiming its Anchor Butter was ‘100% New Zealand Grass-Fed’. www.greenpeace.org/aotearoa/pre...

Great to see such strong public support across the political spectrum for current indoor smokefree laws in pubs. 🚭

In light of the news that Ngaro will be standing for NZ First at this years election, I'm taking this 2023 article out from behind the paywall. Ngaro previously led the Christian Nationalist Party 'NewZeal' after leaving National www.feijoadispatch.nz/p/the-christ...

Ah, so RNZ went with the sanitising headline, followed by quoting all the dishonest dogwhistles without a skerrick of fact checking, finally noting NZF is "rising" in the polls. I presume while wearing a hot dog costume.

nz's political gallery are going to be pushing NZF HARD this year - this is an insane thing to say about Peters and his party given the *decades* of evidence and the VERY recent stochastic terrorism that Peters has taken part in - from "Stuff reporter" lmao

This should be career-ending for Ms Willis 🤬🤬🤬 #OneTermGovernment #NZPol

We’ve joined ACOSH, QUIT, and the Cancer Council Vic to back Assistant Customs Minister Julian Hill, who at the National Illicit Tobacco and E-cigarette Symposium yesterday questioned why tobacco products were so readily available.

The man who stood up on the tiles to add to the witch hunt against a green MP because of their personal life and specifically appeals to conspiracy theorists tells us he doesn’t want to deal with personal stuff and to stop spreading disinformation.

Fuel shortages and rising prices. A proposal to import expensive and dirty LNG and impose a gas levy. And then there’s Methanex, sucking up 45% of our natural gas. My #cartoon today #NZpol #Fuel #FossilFuel

#nzpol Methinks #nats & #lyingluxon have underestimated the gratitude kiwis have for dodging a bullet from covid

Under Jacinda Arden’s leadership the Labour Government’s Covid response was one of the best in the world in the circumstances, and likely saved over 20,000 lives. The second Covid inquiry concludes:

Huge shoutout to @taniawaikatolawyer.bsky.social for raising awareness on this. Amazing use of her platform. See the stats: nzpt.cjs.nz #nzpol #onetermgovt

I get yelled at for saying this but for many hundreds of years people went to university not to get diplomas or be employable but because immersion in the humanities was considered foundational to a good life, and school must return to its original purpose: the joy of learning.

So if we want to know why dialysis is being rationed, there's a clear answer: it's so the 311 richest families in the country can enjoy one of the lowest effective tax rates in the world. We're killing people in order to make the ultra-rich ultra-richer

Truly toxic. 💔😢☹️😠😡 What's next? Reduced chemo therapy for cancer treatments? ED only avail 8a-10p Mondays-Saturdays? Ration asthma inhalers? Ration ... ... we can't afford it RUBBISH ... we have chosen to prioritise other "things/people😡" ...

Ōtepoti: Centre for Medical Humanities at Otago Uni is funding Chronic Illness & creative writing a free Ōtepoti Dunedin community workshop programme for people with ME/CFS or Long Covid Applications open till 13th March 2026 (will put link in following reply) image: poster, same info as above

So who pays ex-cop Rohan Pike to travel nationally & globally advocating tax reductions on tobacco, a position in lockstep with all tobacco companies? Melissa Davey in @australia.theguardian.com investigates www.theguardian.com/business/202...

'ullo, 'ullo, 'ullo? Now why was Pike's name removed from the under oath in-person evidence schedule from the NSW Enquiry into illegal tobacco trade in the 2 days before he was due to speak? Probably a perfectly ordinary explanation

Compulsory reading. @ASHorg's new report outlines 14 concrete recommendations for ending the harms caused by nicotine products: ow.ly/53Hb50Yfkih We've reached the limits of trying to manage an industry built on addiction. #TobaccoEndgame

Astonishing how Costello recalls events from an evening nearly 15 months ago (www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/3609...), yet still can't recall the source of the tobacco industry friendly "mystery document" she passed on to the MOH to inform tobacco policy.

NZ says it will explore “co-operation on critical minerals” with the United States, a day after NZ PM Christopher Luxon brushed off talk of any such co-operation. My Stuff #cartoon today #NZpol #Trump #USA #RareMetals #MineralDeals #ShaneJones

Oxford University Press has lifted the paywall on the entire 40 year archive of @healthpromint.bsky.social as part of our flip to fully open access! Check out the amazing work of our authors - free to read - here: academic.oup.com/heapro

🧵1/2 Important new study published in @bmjtobacco-control.bsky.social examines impact of sales bans in two US cities: tinyurl.com/mr4yk52v