Key: Most smokers want proposed price hikes

Force, fraud, and coercion.

Who are these smokers who wanted the price to go up? Are they currently in government, namely the Maori Party? This is the dumbest thing you've come up with Key. Has nothing been learned from the past? Smokers, particularly Maori smokers WILL NOT stop, regardless of the price. Maori women have been smoking for centuries - look at those Goldie paintings of kuia with a pipe in their mouth. What do you think they were smoking? Dope? At this rate, it might be cheaper to swap to that, unless they decide to jump on the bandwagon too. All you've done is taken more money off people who are already having a hard time. Smokers will ALWAYS try to find money for tobacco. If it can't be found, wait for it.....either money or tobacco will be STOLEN then we have another problem which is more harmful to more people - burglaries and thefts. Carry on with the graphic TV ads - these work with the young kids but leave us older smokers alone to enjoy our cigarettes. I'm coming off the Maori Electoral Roll. Nothing good has come out of being on there for me. There are better ways to help Maori Tariana. Set up a compulsory parenting course for young Maori parents who have already been dealt with by CYFS so we learn how to be good parents and stop killing our babies. Bring back Trade Training for everyone who completes secondary school and doesn't have a job. You'll find most of these will be young Maori youth - the ones who are our biggest risk. They need something to do instead of loafing around and probably holding up some innocent shopkeetper to steal cigarettes.

If somehow it was possible to not get public health care, and instead all your tax revenue went to private health care...I just don't believe you'd get a better deal.

I stand by all the comments that i have read, the grovtment need to get there heads out of there arses and do some thing usefull than trying to put the prices of smokes up, what out taxs go up, food petrol evry thing so they can sit on there flipen arses and tell us how to live our lifes they need to get a life.

This is all about more tax and appeasing his masters from the Maori Party. Key you idiot, remember it was National voted into power, not your brown mates, who seem hell bent on dictating to the majority to push their own radical agenda, and you like an air head are falling for it hook line and sinker. What a muppet.

Exactly we dont hurt anyone but ourselves. Passive smokers? Bullshite i say. Where you going to get passive smokers? you cant smoke in a pub or food outlets so there is no enclosed rooms to get passive smoke. There are more cancerous fumes in the airways of our cities why? because the crap they put in our petrol and burnt fumes from trucks and cars cause you more harm than smoking does. I remember a few years back the wind over christchurch changed one day during the summer and blew all the smog over Culverden some 100kms away and on that one night alone several elderly people died from inhaling that smog which theyd moved away from due to health reasons. how about you rich mongrels making $$$ from selling all these cancer causing things dip into your pocket and put right the pollution youve created along the way to being so well off. I pay tax on wages i pay tax on food i pay tax on petrol then i got to pay bloody gst on top of my food fuel and other stuff like doctors rego WOF how many times do the poor have to be taxed so the rich can point the finger and say hey you stop smoking youre costing me $$ Mr Key give up drinking and look into making NZ have a better standard of living instead of paying a miniscule dole/benefit 12.75$ minimum wage be stuffed. Im a single parent looking after my son it is 24hours a day 7 days a weekand i get 350 a week to pay rent buy food pay electricity pay phonebill and hell if im real lucky i might have $20 left over for gas which will buy me 12.04819 litres of petrol which will give me 120-130 kms of travel. it seems the average wage in nz is $850 per week ok what and where do i sign up for that job as sure as hell isnt down here in dunedin. Mr Key your poll is utter crap who did you poll 100 NON-Smokers from auckland and then you multiplied it by X and came up with your little toilet flushed story.

yer lets raise it AGAIN,dont think so.lol you people in so called power are a bunch of idiots.with all the regulations you put on were and were we cant smoke the only ones were killing is ourselves now.
as for the booze,why dont you put a price rise on that,umm no,why,you like a drink.
how much does the govt spend on drunken accidents?not just the car crashes,look at the big picture,broken bones from drunken falls,police resorces for fights etc,not to mention all the hungry kids that go without cause mum and dad are always pist.how many people go out and have a smoke and go home and bash there families,now how drunks do it,ummmm ask yourself.
its not worth going out at nite now,theres drunken KIDS everywhere you look.
i think you people of power need to pull ya heads out of ya ass and open your eyes.were only hurting ourselves.they kill others!!!!!!!!!!!

Key: Most smokers want proposed price hikes... YEA RIGHT......... a rise in the price of cigarettes, because making them unaffordable will help.... YEA THEY HAV DONE THAT EXACT SHITE WITH THE HOUSES ,FOOD ,, HEALTH. RATES...PETROL.. ETC ETC ETC., AND LAND IN NZ... AND WE CAN NO LONGER AFFORD THEM EITHER.. BUT WHERE BETTER OFF.. WAT WAS IT WE SAID TI ,, NICK SMITH OVR THE ACC ,, RISES.. OH YEA BULLSHITE ,, BULLSHITE ,, BULSHITE... Most WORKERS want proposed price hikes a rise in the price of LAND AND HOUSES, because making them unaffordable will help.... YEA RIGHT.. YIP AND THEY BELIEVE THERE OWN BULLSHITE TOO... ACCSUX

What a daft comment 'most smokers want proposed price hikes'. How do they expect us to believe that one. I am an ex smoker but know that I would have wanted a drop in price not a hike and I believe all smokers would want the same. The real reason is for the Govt to increase the tax take so they can spend it on more crap and not important things like health.

At the end of the day how many smoking drivers do you see smoke drive and kill?? And until people realise the longer national sits in those seats the more assets get sold split up among the rest of their rich mates to make a profit from while everyone else suffers. There are more people die in NZ from cancer related death that has totally nothing to do with SMOKING. It is also a proven fact smoking does not cause cancer it is the crap tobacco companies add to smokes that addicts us and kills us all so they can profit from it.Sure im a smoker sure i wish to hell i could kick the addiction but i cant. call me weak i dont give a toss but the addiction is greater than me.. govt subbed patches dont work either they only made me worse off i now smoke twice what i did before trying to quit so go figure Mr Keys because raising costs just wont do what you want.