It took Nicola Willis a single day in her new job to commit, what will no doubt go down as, one of the biggest political missteps in her career.

In a sentence, she turned a molehill into a mountain, forcing her new Government on the back foot from day one.

According to Willis, one of the ways the Government plans to make up for the revenue shortfall of not being able to tax wealthy foreign home buyers is to reverse the previous Government’s smoke-free legislation.

In a cartoon villain-esque twist, National’s tax cuts will be partly paid for by reversing world-leading anti-smoking rules.

Since revealing that information, the Government’s been dogged by bad headlines at home and abroad.

Every public health expert and their dog has aired their concerns with the moves in a tsunami or criticism leveled at the new Government.

It was just the issue that Labour – recently exiled into Opposition – needed to help it find its feet.

“National's decision to wind back the smoke-free Aotearoa agenda is a disgrace to New Zealand as a country,” leader Chris Hipkins said in the House.

“It is an international embarrassment, and it is making headlines around the world for all the wrong reasons.”

Easy, easy points for the opposition to score.

This situation could have been avoided completely, had Willis taken a different approach from the outset.

The problem was mathematical: The Government needs revenue to fund its tax cuts. It lost one of those revenue lines when NZ First vetoed the foreign buyer tax, so it needs to look elsewhere.

But where the money could be found was all politics.

The story would have died pretty quickly if she stuck to lines about how through “reprioritised spending within Government” or “enhanced cost saving initiatives,” the money would be found.

And that would have been true.

In the House on Thursday Willis admitted as much, saying she’s still not sure (or won’t publicly yet say) how the revenue shortfall will be plugged.

“I am still receiving advice on tax policies, and the details of any specific revenue measures the Government may choose to pursue are yet to be finalised,” she said, defending herself from a Grant Robertson attack.

Absent from her answer: Any commitment to use revenue from scrapping the smoke-free legislation – fueling speculation that the Government may be preparing to do an about-turn.

Meanwhile, Health Minister Shane Reti has delegated the responsibility of rolling back the smoke-free changes to rookie first-term Associate Health Minister Casey Costello.

In terms of first impressions to the New Zealand public, it’s been a bit of a shocker for Nicola Willis – which is shocking in and of itself.

She’s highly competent, well respected and very across her brief.

Robertson – who matches Willis in both competency and respect – clearly knew he spotted a weakness and ceased upon it to score more political points.

“Is she now regretting saying that the Government's tax cut policies would be paid for by rolling back the smoke-free law changes?,” Robertson asked Willis on Thursday.

“To quote a member of this House I admire very much, one Judith Collins, ‘I regret very little’,” Willis fired back.

She may regret very little, but very little is not nothing.

And if there’s one thing to feel a sense of regret over, it's this mess.