British American Tobacco

And of course, it's not just independent startups like Juul that have entered the vaping ring.

Plume is still run by JTI, and British American Tobacco unveiled their Vipe-E cigarette in Canada, British American Tobacco being the second largest cigarette manufacturer in the world as of 2012, by the way.

There are even questions regarding how effective e-cigarettes are for quitting smoking, especially with the increasing trend in underage vaping.

The big concern is that instead of reducing smoking rates in adults, vaping may be creating more smokers overall.

Yeah.

He did really well there, and he's, he ended up with his own consultancy and he picked up a, um, a contract with British American Tobacco to run this big safety program.

And he said, "Look, mate, I'm gonna need a hand.

Probably only need to work two or three days a week.

It's literally covered in our book, Sean.

So the campaign company got money from a lobby group that was funded by British American Tobacco.

Yeah, as we do work for lots of different lobby groups

and political organisations and parties across New Zealand and Australia and in Britain.

Quick update on one of the things that's come through.

British American Tobacco Executive's secretly directed campaign work carried out through the Taxpayers' Union and Jordan Williams' campaign company, according to Nicky Hager.

And then he's got a whole bunch of people who he names.

BAT, that's the British American Tobacco External Affairs Managers, Elliot Steele and later Stu Mullen, met with NZTU Taxpayers' Union staff privately, gave instructions, discussed campaigns, planned... campaign plans.

Those involved were included Williams and successive TU campaign managers, Louis Holbrook, Conor Malloy and probably Callum Purvis, probably.

BAT, British American Tobacco, paid the taxpayers' union, which in turn paid Williams' campaign company to produce campaign messages, petitions, advertisements and websites.

And then after that, they promoted lighter regulation of alternative nicotine products and blah, blah, blah.

It's quite dull.

I mean, I know nobody reads the, nobody reads The Globe much anymore, but how many...

Of the, of the handful of people that got there, how many people got to paragraph 16? "In his 238-page financial disclosure, which covers his finances through the end of 2025, Minogue reported owning stock in Philip Morris International, British American Tobacco, and Japan Tobacco." They make him sound like Buck Duke or R.J.

Reynolds, you know, one of the, one of the m- magnates of the golden age of cigarettes, et cetera.

But, but then we h- and then we come to paragraph 17.

So they don't, they don't use the word index.

They, which would, would be the way people would, would, uh, you know, recognize it.

So the, anot- 19th paragraph, "This is common for wealthy people and ordinary investors alike." [laughs] So in other words, if you have a 401[k] that you just started investing in, i- in, a year ago, and you have 1,000 bucks in it, probably you own some Philip Morris International, [laughs] British American Tobacco, and Japan Tobacco.

"This is common for wealthy people and ordinary investors alike, many of whom use index funds for their retirement and other investment vehicles, and do not have direct control over these holdings." So in other words then, he ...