1. Cassandra Jane "Casey" Costello was born on 1965 or 1966 and is a New Zealand politician, lobbyist and former police officer.
33 Facts About Casey Costello
1. 2.
Casey Costello was elected to the New Zealand House of Representatives, representing the New Zealand First party, in the 2023 New Zealand general election.
3.
Casey Costello was appointed Minister of Customs, Minister for Seniors and Associate Minister of Health in the Sixth National Government of New Zealand.
4.
Casey Costello's iwi affiliations, through her mother, are Ngatiwai, Ngati Hau and Ngapuhi; she is a relative of former politicians Kelvin Davis and Hone Harawira.
5.
Casey Costello later became a security specialist and building services company manager in Auckland.
6.
From 2016, Casey Costello was a founding trustee of Hobson's Pledge with former ACT New Zealand leader Don Brash.
7.
Casey Costello has been involved in the New Zealand Taxpayers' Union, a right-wing lobby group, including as board chair.
8.
Casey Costello resigned from the board so that she could stand in the 2023 general election.
9.
Casey Costello is a trustee of the Migrant Exploitation Relief Foundation, pushing for investigation of the exploitation of illegal immigrants.
10.
Casey Costello contested the Mangere electorate and was ranked 34th on the party list, but was not elected.
11.
In 2019, Casey Costello was involved with the New Conservatives Party.
12.
Casey Costello joined the party's board at the beginning of 2019, as did David Moffett.
13.
Three years later, Casey Costello later shifted her party affiliation and was selected by New Zealand First to contest the Port Waikato electorate at the 2023 election.
14.
Casey Costello identified the removal of the Maori Health Authority as one of the first things she would like to accomplish if elected.
15.
Casey Costello was automatically renominated for the Port Waikato by-election held on 25 November 2023.
16.
Casey Costello came second place in the by-election, gaining 2,864 votes.
17.
In late November 2023, Casey Costello was appointed Minister of Customs, Minister for Seniors, and an associate minister in the health, immigration and police portfolios in the coalition government.
18.
On 25 January 2024, Radio New Zealand reported that Casey Costello had proposed a three year freeze on Consumer Price Index-related excise increases for smoked tobacco and removing the excise tax from smokeless tobacco products.
19.
Casey Costello has denied having any links to the tobacco industry.
20.
Casey Costello proposed harsher penalties for selling vaping products to minors, including a NZ$30,000 fine for selling vapes to minors.
21.
Casey Costello has disagreed with a prohibition on tobacco, instead advocating the decriminalisation of oral nicotine products such as snus and chewing tobacco.
22.
Casey Costello's proposed three-year tobacco tax freeze was criticised by Labour's health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall and anti-smoking advocates Health Coalition Aotearoa co-chairperson Boyd Swinburn, Asthma and Respiratory Foundation NZ chief executive Letitia Harding, Health Aotearoa Commission co-chairperson Leitu Tufuga, and Action on Smoking and Health director Ben Youden as detrimental to efforts to combat smoking and improve public health.
23.
Luxon subsequently stated that Casey Costello was only exploring smoking policy health options and has made a mistake during an interview.
24.
Casey Costello expressed confidence in Costello and confirmed that the Government would not pause increases to the tobacco tax.
25.
However, notes that Casey Costello sent to health officials on reforming smoke free laws make it clear that a proposed freeze on excise tax for tobacco came from her office.
26.
On 27 February 2024, Casey Costello confirmed that the Government would introduce the Smokefree Environments and Regulated Products Amendment Bill under urgency to repeal the three components of the Smokefree legislation: the retail reduction scheme, de-nicotisation and the smokefree generation measures.
27.
Casey Costello claimed that vaping could help reduce tobacco addiction and reiterated the Government's commitment to combating smoking.
28.
On 20 March 2024, Casey Costello announced that the Government would introduce legislation to ban disposable vapes, and increase the maximum fine from selling to under-18s from $10,000 to $100,000.
29.
On 11 July 2024, Casey Costello was rebuked by the Chief Ombudsman Judge Peter Boshier and ordered to apologise to public broadcaster RNZ and University of Otago public health professor Janet Hoek for failing to provide them with Official Information Act information about the Government's tobacco and vaping policies.
30.
On 19 September 2024, Casey Costello was reprimanded again by the Chief Ombudsman Boshier for her handling of a mystery document containing tobacco-industry friendly ideas, which she passed to health officials to develop policy.
31.
On 21 October 2024, Casey Costello announced that ambulance provider Hato Hone St John would receive an additional NZ$21 million in government funding.
32.
In mid April 2025, Radio New Zealand reported that Casey Costello had directed Health New Zealand in late March 2025 to use "clear language" in its communications about health issues.
33.
In mid-April 2025, Casey Costello was verbally accosted by former Te Pati Maori candidate Pere Huriwai-Seger at a Wellsford food court, who justified his actions by alleging that bullying was allowed to happen in Parliament.