Confidential briefings to Associate Health Minister Casey Costello reveal health officials urged the government to retain key aspects of the smokefree law.
Casey Costello plans to scrap the current law, which would slash tobacco retailers from 6000 to 600, remove 95 percent of the nicotine from cigarettes and create a smokefree generation by banning sales to anyone born after 2009.
In documents obtained by RNZ the Health Ministry urged the Associate Health Minister to keep elements of the current law and suggested multiple compromise options, including introducing a purchase age of 25, but the minister rejected them.
Guyon Espiner spoke to Corin Dann.
