New anti-smoking laws are getting closer to becoming law with the Government defending the way it's progressed the moves.

MPs are currently debating the committee stage of a Bill that imposes plain packaging rules on the sales of cigarettes and tobacco.

The Bill had been in hiatus for some time as the Government waited to see the result of a legal challenge taken by tobacco companies against such moves in Australia.

Associate Minister of Health Peseta Sam Lotu-Iinga is standing by the time the Government's taken to progress the legislation.

He said some might say we should be world leaders but sometimes a cautious and considered approach, an approach based on science and evidence, is the way to go.