“It’s not so much that all studies are crap…” she also wrote, according to 1News.

“Rather, this is a small number of selective, not up-to-date research that certainly does not constitute any sort of robust review of the evidence and does not represent current evidence.”

In a statement, Costello said the email proved officials were “undermining the government’s harm reduction approach to reducing smoking rates.”

“I spoke to the Director-General about the importance of maintaining standards of integrity and political neutrality in the public sector.”

Costello’s statement echoes his earlier concerns about a case in which a Department of Health employee was fired in February after allegedly leaking a document showing Costello sought advice on freezing the annual tax increase on tobacco.

The ministry confirmed that Director-General of Health Dr Diana Sarfati had apologized to Costello for the emails and stated the ministry’s commitment to supporting the government’s smoke-free 2025 target. Sarfati refused to be interviewed about this.

Occupational health spokesperson Dr Ayesha Verrall did not believe an apology was needed for the staff member to “call a spade a spade”.

“When did it become wrong in internal emails to call something crap, crap? That’s free and frank advice.”

Civil Service Association national secretary Kerry Davies argued Costello’s complaint proved the government feared advice it disagreed with.

“Publicly attacking a public official for giving advice you disagree with is unacceptable in our democratic system,” Davies said.

“In this case, the official responsible for the matter was simply doing the job that taxpayers expected of her. She highlighted the flaws in the evidence provided by the minister herself to justify a $200 million tax break for tobacco companies.

“Of course, ministers have the right to reject this advice, but publicly attacking an official undermines a fundamental principle that civil servants must be able to give free and frank advice to enable good decision-making. »

She said the union would write to the new civil service commissioner to express “our serious concerns”.

Costello claimed today that the union had misunderstood her position because she was not critical of the advice.

She disagreed with the assessment that none of his advice was “crappy” and believed the case was “useless” for her goal of reducing smoking rates.

However, Costello said that was “the end of the matter” and she would not seek to make changes to the staff who advised her.

“I’m really happy with the people I work with at an operational level to deliver the services. »

Luxon told RNZ this morning that the department had demonstrated “pretty unacceptable behavior”, also citing the department’s failure to declare that a staff member engaged in government smoking reform was the sister-in-law by Verrall.

However, Luxon became frustrated when the interviewer asked whether New Zealand Prime Ministers Winston Peters and Shane Jones had declared conflicts of interest when Cabinet discussed heated tobacco product (HTP) policy, being given that tobacco company Philip Morris dominated the local HTP market and former NZ First staffer Api Dawson worked for Philip Morris.

“I think what’s frustrating is Radio New Zealand frankly wants to talk about this one issue every week and what’s exciting is we’ve actually made good progress.”

Luxon said he believed conflict of interest protocol had been followed.

Labor calls on Winston Peters to prove leak allegation

Verrall today gave his first interview about claims made by Peters last month that his sister-in-law at the Department of Health was linked to leaks from Costello’s office.

Verrall denied receiving leaked information from his sister-in-law: “Absolutely not, she is completely professional. »

Regarding Peters, she said it was inappropriate for politicians to target public officials who could not defend themselves without any evidence of wrongdoing.

“I think it’s up to Winston Peters to justify his comments.”

When asked why she didn’t address the issue last week, Verrall said she didn’t want to “add fuel to the fire.”

Labor leader Chris Hipkins reiterated his confidence in Verrall and said he had written to the Public Service Commission to clarify the guidelines ministers were expected to follow when discussing civil servants.

“Publicly naming this official is reprehensible. »

Adam Pearse is a political reporter with the NZ Herald Press Gallery team, based at Parliament House. He has worked for NZME since 2018, covering sport and health for the Northern Advocate in Whangarei before joining the NZ Herald in Auckland, covering Covid-19 and crime.