Smoking
My wife smokes. She is a considerate smoker. She never asks, "do you mind if I smoke in your presence?" She goes away and smokes where it cannot hurt anyone else. This is often very inconvenient. What's worse her health is shot. But unfortunately she is addicted and stopping has, so far, proved impossible. She has said that she wishes cigarettes had not been available 40 years ago.
We had an opportunity to save future generations. There was no question of banning smokers. Instead the idea was to stop people becoming smokers. Of course the tobacco lobby screamed and applied pressure. But we had a strong government who said, "No! Our people's health comes first." Unfortunately the current government caved in.
All sorts of stupid arguments were raised. One of the best looked at 20 years time. Imagine two forty year olds. The older can go into a shop and buy cigarettes. The younger is banned. But look at it more closely. The elder is spending $500 a week, coughing his guts out while trying vapes and patches. Meanwhile the younger, who is not addicted, has a larger disposable income and better health.
Perhaps I'm being unfair on the government. Perhaps they didn't just cravenly cave in. Several had worked for the tobacco companies in the past. Whilst they aren't being paid now (that would be an illegal conflict of interest) what happens when they retire? In the UK there was the 'revolving door syndrome'. Government ministers would hand out favours and then when they left office, suddenly they became non-executive directors.
Poll: 🤖 What skills do you think give a CV the ultimate edge in a robot-filled workplace?
The Reserve Bank has shared some pretty blunt advice: there’s no such thing as a “safe” job anymore 🛟😑
Robots are stepping into repetitive roles in factories, plants and warehouses. AI is taking care of the admin tasks that once filled many mid-level office jobs.
We want to know: As the world evolves, what skills do you think give a CV the ultimate edge in a robot-filled workplace?
Want to read more? The Press has you covered!
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52.7% Human-centred experience and communication
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14.6% Critical thinking
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30% Resilience and adaptability
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2.7% Other - I will share below!
Share your favourite main crop potato recipe and win a copy of our mag!
Love potatoes? We will give away free copies of the May 2026 issue to readers whose potato recipes are used in our magazine. To be in the running, make sure you email your family's favourite way to enjoy potatoes: mailbox@nzgardener.co.nz, by March 1, 2026.
Some Choice News!
DOC is rolling out a new tool to help figure out what to tackle first when it comes to protecting our threatened species and the things putting them at risk.
Why does this matter? As Nikki Macdonald from The Post points out, we’re a country with around 4,400 threatened species. With limited time and funding, conservation has always meant making tough calls about what gets attention first.
For the first time, DOC has put real numbers around what it would take to do everything needed to properly safeguard our unique natural environment. The new BioInvest tool shows the scale of the challenge: 310,177 actions across 28,007 sites.
Now that we can see the full picture, it brings the big question into focus: how much do we, as Kiwis, truly value protecting nature — and what are we prepared to invest to make it happen?
We hope this brings a smile!
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