The country’s health ministry announced Thursday that New Zealand’s far-left government is looking to ban smoking for anyone born after 2004 in an effort to make the nation smoke-free by 2025.

Associate Minister of Health Dr. Ayesha Verrall announced the proposed measure earlier this week, which would gradually increase the legal smoking age over time.

She said in a statement:

“We want to make sure young people never start smoking, so we will make it an offense to sell or supply smoke tobacco products to new cohorts of young people.”

New Zealand plans to make it illegal to sell cigarettes to anyone aged 14 and under from 2027. The ban will remain in place for the rest of the person’s life. That means a person aged 60 in 2073 will be banned from buying cigarettes, while a person aged 61 would be allowed to do so.

Smoking rates have steadily fallen in New Zealand for years, with only about 11% of adults now smoking and 9% smoking every day. The daily rate among Indigenous Maori remains much higher at 22%. Under the government’s plan, a task force would be created to help reduce smoking among Maori.

Big tax increases have already been imposed on cigarettes in recent years and some question why they aren’t hiked even higher.

Verrall said in a statement:

“We don’t think tax increases will have any further impact. It’s really hard to quit and we feel if we did that, we’d be punishing those people who are addicted to cigarettes even more.”

“Roughly 8,000 New Zealand retailers currently sell tobacco products. The “Smokefree 2025” legislation would aim to reduce this figure “to about 500 under the new rules – meaning 7,500 will have to transition to a new business model,” she added.

“Dairy owners facing loss of income after losing tobacco sales won’t be compensated,” Verrall said.

Read more of this report from Breitbart:

Verrall referred to small dairy shops in New Zealand, or “dairies,” which traditionally sell tobacco products in addition to milk and other goods. New Zealand dairies rely heavily upon foot traffic from customers seeking tobacco products and will likely suffer tremendous financial hardship under the new smoking ban.

“Dairies will go out of business,” Sunny Kaushal, an advocate for New Zealand dairies, told Stuff in April when the “Smokefree 2025” bill was first proposed to the public.

“If the revenue is gone, how can they survive? We urge the Government to review this proposal and not take a hasty decision which could impact so heavily on small businesses,” he said.

A dairy shop owner in Glenfield, New Zealand, named Jessica Lee told Stuff at the time “business would become a lot more difficult if she could no longer sell tobacco.”

“Most of the people coming to the dairy are after tobacco products,” the small business owner said.

When asked by Stuff what she would do if the “Smokefree 2025” bill passed into law, Lee replied, “We might have to close the shop.”

Sources: Breitbart, The Guardian