Associate health minister Casey Costello has routinely been in the news this year, in part due to ongoing confusion over the authorship of policy document, writes Stewart Sowman-Lund in today’s extract from The Bulletin.

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Questions over caffeine and nicotine

He might not drink coffee, but the prime minister was prepared to admit in parliament yesterday afternoon that he believes nicotine is more harmful than caffeine. It’s hardly a shocking claim, though it stems from reporting this week that suggests one of his ministers may be of the opposite view. On Monday, RNZ’s Guyon Espiner published the latest in a series of reports focused on the associate health minister Casey Costello. The NZ First MP has been thrust into the spotlight since entering parliament late last year, making headlines – many of them thanks to reporting by Espiner – over her role in overseeing the government’s policies around smoking.

The latest report, which you may have read in Monday’s Bulletin, included details of a document purportedly sent to health officials by Costello but which the minister has persistently denied writing or having any knowledge of. The letter had previously been released in a bundle of other information and included the bold (and, as this paywalled report by The Listener argued, untrue) claim that “nicotine is as harmful as caffeine” and labelled the former Labour government’s plans for a smokefree generation as “nanny state nonsense”.

A multitude of headlines

All of this flows from the coalition’s controversial move to backtrack on legislation by the previous government that was targeted at outlawing smoking for future generations, as this report by The Guardian from last November explains. The world-first legislation, that was unexpectedly ditched by the government after taking office, would have steadily increased the legal smoking age to stop those born after January 2009 from being able to purchase cigarettes. Unsurprisingly, as this report by The Spinoff’s Gabi Lardies explained, it prompted significant backlash and protests, but the government hasn’t budged.

In the months since, there have been ongoing suggestions by the opposition that the government, and in particular Costello and NZ First, are effectively in the pocket of “Big Tobacco”. In January, reported Espiner, a Ministry of Health document suggested Costello was proposing a freeze on tobacco excise tax (which she denied). The notes from her office, which included the line about caffeine, were subsequently released, but Costello maintained she had not written them. In parliamentary question time yesterday, Labour’s health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall attempted (unsuccessfully) to get additional details, with Costello saying she received a “range of information” after becoming a minister. It’s worth noting that the claim about nicotine and caffeine also appeared in NZ First’s 2023 manifesto – potentially one explanation for how it ended up with health officials. And, noted The Verge in 2019, it’s a regular tobacco industry talking point.

Who’s connected to who?

Costello has maintained she has no links with the tobacco industry, though Verrall has in recent days suggested that the minister may have fallen victim to intense lobbying. Last week, Espiner reported on a leaked Phillip Morris strategy document from 2017 that said the company should target political parties, including New Zealand First, in order to push through more favourable regulation for heated tobacco products – which the coalition silently moved forward with in July. Otago University published a briefing last week that showed New Zealand First had one of the worst voting track records in parliament when it came to supporting “progressive smokefree legislation”, supporting two out of seven pieces of legislation since 2003.

An earlier briefing from February found that members of the coalition government have on several occasions echoed talking points from tobacco companies and, as the Herald’s Isaac Davison explained, noted past and present links between the government and the tobacco industry. This in-depth report from RNZ’s Kate Newton looked at the wording of Costello’s briefing to health officials last year, concluding that “whether intentional or not, there are frequent… similarities between the language and themes from the document that came out of her office and those used by the [tobacco] industry”.

Lobbying in the spotlight

As The Post’s Andrea Vance wrote in May, it’s certainly not just New Zealand First that has faced perception issues – though there was also the issue with Shane Jones’ undeclared dinner we looked at in July. Other members of the current and former government have ties that, from the outside, can look a bit murky. In 2022, former Labour cabinet minister Kris Faafoi went through the revolving door straight into lobbying, while Espiner (yes, again) had a series of excellent reports in May last year that included revelations Chris Hipkins’ chief of staff had headed a lobbying firm that represented liquor companies and argued against a reform the Labour government ultimately scrapped.

A recent report from the Helen Clark Foundation raised concerns around largely unregulated lobbying in our political system, reported the Herald’s Derek Cheng (paywalled), with former attorney-general Chris Finlayson arguing that we need to raise our standards. “It is not enough for democracies like ours to pay lip service to principles of transparency and steps which need to be taken against corruption. New Zealand must critically examine these issues on a regular basis.” Among the recommendations: a mandatory code of conduct, a public lobbying register and closing the revolving door via a three-year stand down for certain officials.