Smoking is one of the leading preventable causes of early death in Aotearoa New Zealand. A Smokefree Aotearoa means that our families and whānau are smokefree and protected from the harm of tobacco.

We are one of several organisations working toward the  goal for Aotearoa to be smokefree by 2025, which means all population groups have a smoking rate of under 5%.

Our work ensures:

  • people are more aware, motivated and able to change their smoking behaviours
  • environments and communities promote and protect New Zealanders from tobacco-related harm.

We achieve this through the development and delivery of health promotion campaigns, information, digital tools and health education resources dedicated to protecting our people from the harms of tobacco. We focus on key population groups, particularly Māori, Pacific peoples, and young adults.

Our tobacco control mahi

Smokefree information

Smokefree information

We host and maintain the Smokefree website, which provides:

  • pathways for people and their whānau to quit
  • information and advice about smokefree environments
  • information about the health effects of smoking
  • tools to help people understand facts about smoking
  • resources that can be shared within communities, schools, workplaces, and more.

 

Campaigns and events

Campaigns and events

Breakfree to Smokefree social marketing campaign 
The Breakfree to Smokefree campaign was launched in May 2023 and runs until June 2025.

The purpose of this nationwide campaign is to educate, empower, and create a supportive non-judgemental environment for people to quit smoking.

The campaign supports the Smokefree 2025 goal by motivating people to stop smoking, and ensuring there is a focus on supporting and enabling them to be smokefree. This includes signposting stop-smoking services and Quitline in our advertising as a direct call to action.​

Our audiences are people who smoke across Aotearoa with a priority on Māori and Pacific who have the highest smoking rates. The campaign also speaks to friends and whānau of people who smoke to encourage and support them on their quit journey.​

A campaign webpage, Breakfree to Smokefree, encourages people to connect with a local quit coach, find a stop smoking service, access free support from Quitline and switch to vaping to quit. ​

Smokefreerockquest and Smokefree Tangata Beats
Smokefreerockquest is a live, nationwide competition for student musicians and bands to perform original music, celebrating songwriting and musicianship in up to 40 regional events across the country and a national final every year.The Smokefree sponsorship began in 1991.

Smokefree Tangata Beats (SFTB) is a nationwide platform for student musicians and bands that recognises and celebrates unique cultural identities of Aotearoa and the South Pacific. This platform champions Māori and Pacific sounds, reo and stories being showcased onstage. It follows the same format as Smokefreerockquest and includes up to 20 live events across the country.

Protect your Breath
Related mahi within tobacco control focuses on the prevention of youth vaping. Read more about the Protect your Breath campaign.

Data, Research and Evaluation

Data, Research and Evaluation

Research and Evaluation publications related to our tobacco control programme can be found in the Health New Zealand publications repository.

The Kupe online data explorer, provides information about smoking behaviour and attitudes from the Health and Lifestyles Survey. This survey last run in 2020/21.

Health NZ supports the ASH Year-10 Snapshot Survey, a national secondary school-based survey of smoking and vaping behaviour of Year-10 students. Information on the survey can be found on the ASH website.

The Tobacco Control Data Repository consolidates information about smoking behaviour from 11 sources.

Vaping

Vaping

Vaping has the potential to contribute to achieving the Smokefree 2025 goal.

The Vaping Facts website has three main parts:

  1. Key facts about vaping (such as what is vaping, nicotine and vaping, the risks of vaping, vaping and the law, and vaping and pregnancy).
  2. Vaping to quit smoking (essential tips for success, support for quitting smoking.
  3. Vaping safety, including links to the local stop smoking services).

The site is for:

  • people who are looking to quit smoking and those who support them
  • anyone interested in using vaping to stop smoking
  • people looking for New Zealand-specific information about vaping.