Jump to full article: Radio New Zealand - Te Reo Irirangi o Aoteoroa (RNZ) (nz), 2010-03-09
Intro: A Maori tobacco researcher says the Maori Affairs Select Committee inquiry into smoking needs to ask why successive governments have done nothing to help Maori to quit.
Dr Marewa Glover has been running anti-smoking campaigns and research for almost two decades.
She says governments have sat by and watched Maori die, despite a succession of national hui highlighting the problem, Waatea News reports.
"We know what it does to marae, we know its killing our elders," she says. "The inquiry needs to be asking why the Government hasn't done something more effective to stop the harm." . ..
Labour Party leader Phil Goff says the government is not doing enough to target smoking among Maori.
He told Waatea News the select committee inquiry into the tobacco industry and the effects of smoking on Maori is an important step in addressing a major public health issue.
But he says young Maori women in particular are not getting the message that smoking is harmful.
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