ASH

Yesterday the Taxpayers’ Union fired out a release pointing out the blindingly obvious High Taxes Developing Underground Tobacco Market.

The Taxpayers’ Union is saddened but not surprised that New Zealanders are turning to the underground and unregulated homegrown tobacco market in response to the Government’s continued hikes in taxes on smokers. Reacting to the Wanganui Chronicle report on local growers exchanging crops on Facebook, Executive Director of the Taxpayers’ Union, Jordan Williams, says:

“In Australia high tobacco taxes have led to an underground trade being run by organised crime. It looks like the same problems are starting to take ahold here, under the legal cover of ‘home-grown’ supplies.”

This followed an article in the Wanganui Chronicle about Homegrown crops being sold online where smokers are turning to tobacco growers to get cheap smokes.    Read more »

Cameron Slater

As much at home writing editorials as being the subject of them, Cam has won awards, including the Canon Media Award for his work on the Len Brown/Bevan Chuang story. When he’s not creating the news, he tends to be in it, with protagonists using the courts, media and social media to deliver financial as well as death threats.

They say that news is something that someone, somewhere, wants kept quiet. Cam Slater doesn’t do quiet and, as a result, he is a polarising, controversial but highly effective journalist who takes no prisoners.

He is fearless in his pursuit of a story.

Love him or loathe him, you can’t ignore him.

To read Cam’s previous articles click on his name in blue.

http://whaleoil.co.nz

This morning I came across another startling headling on TV3, ‘E-cigarettes linked to teen smoking – study’.

Yet another case where the headline isn’t supported by the story.

When you read the article, it says:

“…the findings in the Journal of the American Medical Association out on Tuesday (local time) stop short of showing that e-cigarettes cause teens to try other forms of tobacco, and scientists say more research is needed to explore any such link.”

So it doesn’t show e-cigarette use causes teens to move onto cigarette smoking. Of course there’s the chance to call for more research troughing.

Then there’s the kicker from Peter Hajek, professor of clinical psychology at the University of London who said: Read more »

Cameron Slater

As much at home writing editorials as being the subject of them, Cam has won awards, including the Canon Media Award for his work on the Len Brown/Bevan Chuang story. When he’s not creating the news, he tends to be in it, with protagonists using the courts, media and social media to deliver financial as well as death threats.

They say that news is something that someone, somewhere, wants kept quiet. Cam Slater doesn’t do quiet and, as a result, he is a polarising, controversial but highly effective journalist who takes no prisoners.

He is fearless in his pursuit of a story.

Love him or loathe him, you can’t ignore him.

To read Cam’s previous articles click on his name in blue.

http://whaleoil.co.nz

Here we go again.

Poor old trougher Shane Kawenata Bradbrook – the trougher exposed on Whaleoil for living it up large around the world on the taxpayer, is crying to Maori media after another troughing group gets a slap from the Taxpayers Union.

This time it is taxpayer funded anti-tobacco group ASH getting a serve from the Taxpayers Union who say:

The Taxpayers’ Union believes that questions need to asked about why a lobby group, working with the Maori Party on a political campaign around tobacco plain packaging, is largely taxpayer funded.  This morning’s front page of the New Zealand Herald covers the latest efforts to build political pressure to introduce a plain packaging law.

Taxpayers’ Union Executive Director, Jordan Williams, says, “While civil servants operate under a duty of political neutrality, the Ministry of Health and others are awarding substantial sums of taxpayer money to health and environmental lobby groups to push particular political agendas.”

“It is wrong for special interest groups such as ASH to be using taxpayer money for political campaigns. ASH’s factual inaccuracies about the impact of plain packaging on smoking consumption in Australia suggests that they are operating outside any of the usual public sector control requiring balanced and evidenced based public statements.”

According to ASH’s most recent annual return filed with the Charities Register, more than 90% of ASH’s funding comes from the taxpayer.

Mr Williams says, “We all support funding for front line and addiction services such as Quitline. What we don’t support is funding to political organisations to operate campaigns with taxpayer money.”

Read more »

Cameron Slater

As much at home writing editorials as being the subject of them, Cam has won awards, including the Canon Media Award for his work on the Len Brown/Bevan Chuang story. When he’s not creating the news, he tends to be in it, with protagonists using the courts, media and social media to deliver financial as well as death threats.

They say that news is something that someone, somewhere, wants kept quiet. Cam Slater doesn’t do quiet and, as a result, he is a polarising, controversial but highly effective journalist who takes no prisoners.

He is fearless in his pursuit of a story.

Love him or loathe him, you can’t ignore him.

To read Cam’s previous articles click on his name in blue.

http://whaleoil.co.nz

Yesterday it was revealed that Helen Clark, arch anti-tobacco crusader, was happy to hand out an award personally to the Chairman of ITC, Mr. Y C Deveshwar, at the Rio +20 Summit She was all smiles and closeness in doing so too, here is an image from ITC’s Facebook page of the smiling and happy Helen Clark cuddling up close to big tobacco…no scowly duckface or smacked bum face there:

Now that the story has broken Helen Clark is in damage control and it seems her pals in ASH are running interference for her:

@TurangaNZ @no_smoking_chik Some context needed. Letter from @HelenClarkUNDP replying to tobacco control concerns. twitter.com/ASH_New_Zealan…

— ASH New Zealand (@ASH_New_Zealand) July 17, 2012

Clark’s letter is crocodile tears, and doesn’t stand any sort of scrutiny. Helen Clark built a reputation as a details person, her functionaries would mock any opposition politicians who wasn’t in command of facts. Are we to believe that these much vaunted faculties have deserted her now she is safely installed at the United Nations?

It is inconceivable to believe that neither she nor the UNDP were aware of ITC’s tobacco interests. On their Facebook page it is obvious with logos of Wills, which of course ITC owns, diagrams of business interests that clearly show tobacco,

Is Helen Clark blaming Heather Simpson for failing to research ITC in advance of the event? Will Heather Simpson be sent home in disgrace to work in Shearer’s office? Will Chris Carter have to step up in the UN to hold Helen’s handbag instead of Heather Simpson?

Their website has a plethora of information about their tobacco interests. This is not a small company…they own Imperial Tobacco FFS!

Many questions, so far only great clouds of (tobacco) smoke from Clark’s office.

She has been caught out as a top class UN funded hypocrite.

Cameron Slater

As much at home writing editorials as being the subject of them, Cam has won awards, including the Canon Media Award for his work on the Len Brown/Bevan Chuang story. When he’s not creating the news, he tends to be in it, with protagonists using the courts, media and social media to deliver financial as well as death threats.

They say that news is something that someone, somewhere, wants kept quiet. Cam Slater doesn’t do quiet and, as a result, he is a polarising, controversial but highly effective journalist who takes no prisoners.

He is fearless in his pursuit of a story.

Love him or loathe him, you can’t ignore him.

To read Cam’s previous articles click on his name in blue.

http://whaleoil.co.nz