NZ government reveals cigarette plain packaging details

The New Zealand government is pushing ahead with its plans to bring in plain packaging for cigarettes and it's revealed what it wants the packs to look like.

Associate Health Minister Sam Lotu-Iiga today - on World Smoke Free Day - unveiled the proposed new brown-green packaging, which is similar to what is used in Australia.

Mandatory health warnings will cover at least 75 percent of the front of the packs and all tobacco imagery will be removed.

While brand names will be allowed, there will be rules to standardise how and where the printing is.

"The design and appearance of cigarette packets are powerful marketing tools for vendors," Mr Lotu-Iiga said.

The government wants the Smokefree Environments (Tobacco Plain Packaging) Amendment Bill passed by the end of the year.

That could mean plain cigarette packets could be on shelves early next year, Prime Minister John Key said.

The government first mooted plain packaging back in 2012 and the bill to bring it in passed its first reading back in February 2014.

It went to a select committee, which supported it, but the government put it on hold because it was worried about the possibility of costly legal challenges from big multi-national tobacco companies.

The Australian government was being sued at the time, but in December last year legal action taken by Philip Morris failed.

However, Australia is still waiting for the outcome of a challenge to its plain packaging laws that is being dealt with by the World Trade Organisation.

A decision on that dispute is expected some time this year.

Despite that, Mr Lotu-Iiga insists now is the right time for New Zealand to proceed with plain packaging.

It's estimated between 4500 and 5000 people die from smoking-related illnesses each year.

About 15 per cent of adult New Zealanders smoke. The figure for Maori is 35 per cent and for Pacific peoples it's 22 per cent.

The unveiling of the proposed new plain packaging comes after last week's budget confirmed that the annual 10 per cent increase to the tax on tobacco would continue for the next four years.

That will eventually take the price of a packet of cigarettes to $30.