That will be the fate of the National Party; such measures inevitably result in a degree of punishment for the ruling Government of the day, and although the Maori Party is a part of the coalition, it is a barely visible blip on the political horizon, so far as most voters are concerned.
To what degree there will be a backlash is a matter of realpolitik, and the pragmatists who run the Government have judged this decision to a nicety.
It is a mid-term decision, likely to be of little consequence when the election is called towards the end of next year; it was obviously decided to announce it now rather than in the Budget - just 22 days away - so as not to deflect attention from what the Government hopes will be its good news - tax cuts.
To some extent, smokers aggrieved by the decision to enforce price increases will take the opportunity to give up their habit, especially when they realise prices will likely increase again in three weeks if, as expected, GST is increased, possibly adding another 32c to a packet of 25 cigarettes.
That will be very good news for the health and wellbeing of the nation. The cost of smoking cannot be measured in the price of tobacco, let alone in the pleasure derived from their addiction by smokers, but in the price everyone pays for its proven deleterious effects on health, and the expense of that to the health system, for which we all pay.
There has been nothing in this country like the pressure which United States authorities have placed on the tobacco companies to contribute to health care costs. This may in part be because cigarettes here are already so heavily taxed, but there would seem to be much room yet to redouble the effort being made to prevent young people from starting to smoke.
According to some experts, about 80,000 people who stopped smoking at the time of the last big tax increase, in 2000, resumed smoking within four months, but since then we have had subsidies on nicotine replacement therapy - although claims were made during Wednesday's Parliamentary debate that even this scheme was showing signs of being less successful than had been hoped - and the tidal wave of efforts to make smoking less attractive has included an increasing element of social stigma, especially in workplaces.
The measures this week to also raise the cost of loose tobacco, said to be used mostly by the poor, the young, Maori and Pacific Islanders, will have perhaps a greater impact than in the past when it has been favoured as a cheaper option by users.
The Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners advised the Government that it will be vital to dedicate the extra tax income to smoking cessation programmes, especially targeting low income earners, Maori and Pacific smokers, at-risk youth and patients with chronic illnesses whose health is further compromised by smoking, but there was no indication in the legislation that this will be the case.
The college has quoted statistics showing that despite all the efforts, restricting marketing and promotion of tobacco, protecting people from second-hand smoke, subsidising stop-smoking programmes, and education campaigns, more than one in five smoke tobacco regularly and smoking prevalence is much higher for Pacific Islanders (28%) and Maori (44%).
If the latest economic sanctions - for that is what they are - do not reduce this number, what then? As has happened before, tobacco companies may reduce their margins to try to maintain sales, and the existing black market for stolen cigarettes will likely increase.
It is entirely regrettable that the Clark government, while implementing and funding stop-smoking campaigns, did nothing about raising excise taxes after 2000, despite the best health advice to do so. Whether that failure was prompted by political considerations or that price increases would hit those on low incomes hardest, is no longer worth debating.
The fact is for a decade politicians failed to realise the greater good: that those who continued to smoke despite higher prices could be expected to smoke less; that fewer young people would start smoking; and that the great cost to the nation might be alleviated.
The Government - and Mrs Turia - are to be commended for taking a long overdue step.
