Lion Labs E-Liquid industry thoughts and considerations

Last week Associate Minister of Health Hon. Jenny Salesa made a statement to media that fired up the vaping community. On flavours she said: “The legislation that I am about to introduce ahh to the house will ban most flavours, umm, I will be allowing umm at the moment at least three ahh which includes ahh tobacco, umm menthol and mint.” And with regard to advertising and promotions: “Similar to tobacco, we will ban advertising, umm social media, umm all of that is not going to be allowed ahh under the new legislation, ahh discounts two-for-one all of that is not going to be allowed.” It is rare for bills that are introduced by the governing party to be defeated, so we need to look at how much time we have as a community and industry before any “proposed flavour bans” or “complete ban on advertising” could potentially come into effect, and therefore how much time we have and what opportunities we have to influence the outcome. To do this, it is important to understand the New Zealand legislative process. How long till regulation? Being in New Zealand means we have a modern democracy with well-defined opportunities to influence any proposed legislation as it moves through the process. The government is due to introduce amendments to the Smokefree Environments Act (SFEA) in the next few weeks, here is how the process works: how vaping bill will become law in new zealand.png Introduction (est. early October 2019): The bill is ‘Introduced’ into the house, this administrative process is later announced in the House. A bill has no formal existence until it is introduced and the proposed bill will be available for the public to view the following introduction. See on the info-graphic (from parliament) that consumers, charities and businesses can still lobby Jenny Salesa on the proposed legislation up until its introduction next month - there are a number of ways you can do this and we explain them below in the How can you Help? section. First reading (est. October - December 2019): This is when Salesa’s long-awaited bill will get its first airing in parliament and we will be able to see debates on the bill from MP’s. We will learn more about which MPs support the bill and who does not. At the end of the debate, the House decides if a bill should progress by voting on whether it should be ‘read a first time’. If a bill is defeated in the vote, that is the end of the bill - it will be withdrawn. If the ‘first reading’ is agreed, the bill is referred to a select committee to be considered in more detail. To read more information click the link below Sourced from: www.lionlabs.co.nz Lion Labs do an awesome job, breaking down the legislative process to give the vape industry an idea of what's to come when a new bill is submitted to parliament