Parliament is expected to take up plain packaging for tobacco products early in 2014 after the government sent its proposal to legislators in mid December.

“I look forward to taking the legislation through its parliamentary stages in 2014”, Associate Health Minister Tariana Turia said in a December statement after the bill was filed with the Clerk of the House. A first reading for the Smoke-free Environments (Tobacco Products and Packaging) Amendment Bill was expected soon after Parliament resumes activity in 2014, the government said.
Public input will be part of the process. New Zealand plans to become a smoke-free country by 2025. However the government will monitor legal challenges to Australia’s plain-pack law, the world’s first and only such restriction, according to the statement.