media release

Hāpai Te Hauora congratulates the Ngā Kaihoe o Aotearoa (Waka Ama New Zealand) for its commitment to Māori wellbeing during the national championship festival. 

Wāhine Māori across Aotearoa are paving the way by encouraging other wāhine to switch to vaping following the annual tobacco excise tax increase on January 1st.

New Zealanders who smoke will take another hit when the tax on tobacco products increases by 10 per cent for the third year in a row today as part of the government's plan to make New Zealand smokefree by 2025. As tobacco products become increasingly unaffordable, wāhine are advocating for vaping to be more readily available and accepted as a quit tool.

After an increase in excise tax on tobacco on January 1st, communities and smokefree advocates are calling for greater protection of those most affected by thefts from dairies. There has been a reported rise in dairy robberies over the last few months, purported to be in response to the increase in cigarette prices.

The government believe vaping products “have the potential to make a contribution to the Smokefree 2025 goal and could disrupt the significant inequities that are present.” 

This morning Health Minister Dr David Clark and Police Minister Stuart Nash announced a range of measures to tackle the synthetics crisis which has seen appalling harm across our communities, with a particularly serious impact on Māori.

The Advertising Standards Authority recently decided not to uphold a complaint from public health collective Healthy Auckland Together (HAT) about advertising junk food to children. The complaint was targeted at a YouTube advertisement for Kinder Surprise.

"How do we stop getting in the way of Māori and Pasifica flourishing, and reverse the trauma of colonisation and disadvantage?" This sentence is drawn from a new report into family violence in New Zealand. The report is the third in a series examining the factors leading to New Zealand’s high incarceration rates.

Weaving experts, community leaders and Hāpai te Hauora are coming together with students from Māngere Bridge school to plant a pā harakeke (plantation of harakeke) during Safe Sleep Week. The National SUDI Prevention Coordination Service from Hāpai Te Hauora will support whānau, weavers and communities within the area of Counties-Manukau District Health Board (DHB).

Today the Associate Minister of Health, Jenny Salesa, delivered a much-anticipated response from the government to the introduction of vaping products to New Zealand. Vapes have been a contentious subject in the health sector, sparking debate between those who advocate caution and those who have seen in vaping and related products a much-needed circuit breaker for those who have struggled to quit smoking by other means.

A new Ministry of Health report was released today which identified insights generated from initiatives which empowered young Māori women to become smoke free, including building trusting relationships, dismantling complex life contexts and building financial capability