Cancer Society of New Zealand v. Ministry of Health

The New Zealand Ministry of Health inspected a portion of a casino complex and determined that it constituted an “open area” under the Smoke-free Environments Act. The Cancer Society of New Zealand and other organizations disagreed with the Ministry’s interpretation and asked the Court to review the issue. The Court found that the Ministry’s enforcement agents improperly relied on an “Open Areas Calculator” (a mathematical tool) in determining whether the space was substantially enclosed. The Court found that the Open Areas Calculator was inconsistent with the definition of an “open area” in the law. The Court ordered the Ministry to reconsider whether the area of the casino could allow smoking under the law. 

Cancer Society of New Zealand & Ors. v. Ministry of Health & Ors., CIV-2013-404-488 (2013) NZHC 2538.

  • New Zealand
  • Sep 30, 2013
  • High Court of New Zealand, Auckland Registry
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Parties

Plaintiff

  • The Cancer Society of New Zealand Incorporated
  • The Problem Gambling Foundation of New Zealand
  • The Salvation Army New Zealand Trust

Defendant

  • Auckland Regional Public Health Service
  • Skycity Auckland Limited
  • The Ministry of Health

Legislation Cited

International/Regional Instruments Cited

Related Documents

Type of Litigation

Tobacco Control Topics

Substantive Issues

Type of Tobacco Product

None

"The Ministry’s goal of achieving predictability and consistency is laudable. The use of the word “substantial” introduces an element of subjectivity into the assessments that have to be made under the Act. The imposition of an inflexible standard is avoided at the cost of certainty. The use of Guidelines to promote a consistent approach to the judgments enforcement officers are called upon to make is entirely proper provided they do not introduce extraneous considerations which have the effect of unlawfully fettering the exercise of the decisionmaking power. However well intentioned, that is what happened here. The simple factual question of whether or not a space is substantially enclosed is replaced by a calculation intended to assess airflow through the space. That is contrary to the clear scheme and purpose of the statute."