Associate Health Minister Casey Costello. Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
The government is promising to crackdown on vape retailers but has no extra funding to enforce the new rules.
On Wednesday, it was announced that single-use vapes would be banned in hopes of decreasing youth vaping.
The government aimed to have all the changes in place by the end of the year - moves that were supported by the vaping industry.
Other measures include much bigger fines for selling vapes to under 18s, further retailer restrictions, and a better enforcement system to ensure they are following the rules.
The maximum fine for selling vaping products to under age customers will increase from $10,000 to $100,000.
Associate Health Minister Casey Costello told Checkpoint there are just 15 people enforcing the rules at the thousands of retailers nationwide.
There was no money for more so she wanted to see those currently doing the job be more active in communities.
"The issue is there's no funding to increase at this point ... there just is no money to do more than that."
She wanted to know how many visits to retailers they were doing and how many actions were taken.
Costello said there had been just one prosecution since vaping regulations came into play and she wanted to see more.
"We're not expecting to go straight to a $100,000 fine but we definitely want to see more activity out there and have them approaching stores and getting active and that's what we haven't seen."
Enforcers were spread around the country and were able to cover the main centres, she said.
She wanted to give them the "chance to do more" and suggested it would only take a few more prosecutions of the increased penalties to have the impact that was needed to have vape retailers follow the rules.
Costello told Checkpoint the government was not looking at changing any of the proximity rules which did not allow vape stores within 300 metres of kura and marae.
But it was looking at expanding it to also include early childhood education centres.
The Vaping Industry Association of New Zealand (VIANZ), which said it had no connection with the tobacco industry, welcomed the planned changes.
"Banning disposables, increasing fines for retailers who sell to youth, and ensuring appropriate staffing levels in specialist vape retailers are all steps VIANZ has asked the ministry to implement previously," it said in a statement on Wednesday afternoon.
But the changes would not work without enforcement, it said.
"We hope that as part of this announcement government is giving thought to how the regulations will be enforced and what resources need to be invested to ensure youth access is prevented."
