Graham Perrett (Moreton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Public Health (Tobacco and Other Products) Bill, a bill that builds on the pioneering tobacco control reforms introduced by past Labor governments, including Australia's world-leading tobacco plain packaging reforms. I would just like to give a special shout-out to Nicola Roxon, whose commitment saved and changed lives. She was able to translate her personal family experience into legislation, which flowed on to global action, which I will touch on in my speech.

This bill consolidates the existing Commonwealth tobacco control framework into one act with associated regulations, thereby streamlining the operation of the laws. It modernises and simplifies the existing provisions and introduces new measures to discourage smoking and addresses the health risks posed by vaping and e-cigarette products. I heard the member for Casey raise concerns about illegal tobacco, and I do share some of those concerns. I've heard that same concern from retailers in my area. I'm hoping the federal government can step up some of the border control measures when it comes to chop-chop being brought into Australia.

But in talking about this legislation, this is not the first time I've stood and talked about plain packaging of tobacco. That was a great Labor government policy, and it was achieved despite some fierce opposition from the Liberal and National parties. And I note that the National Party still takes money from big tobacco—amazing. When Nicola Roxon introduced plain packaging, around 16 per cent of Australians smoked on a daily basis. Today that rate is down to 11 per cent and was heading south for quite a while. That's the equivalent of one million fewer Australians smoking, one million lives changed, because of government intervention.

When the current Minister for Health, the Hon. Mark Butler, introduced this bill he said that, despite previous reforms, tobacco use remains the leading cause of preventable death and disability among Australians. It's estimated to kill more than 20,000 Australians each year. It's also the risk factor that's the greatest contributor to the health gap between First Nations people and non-indigenous Australians. The health impacts of these reforms will mean that tens of thousands of families will never have to experience the pain of seeing a loved one suffer with lung cancer and that vast range of other disorders caused by smoking, including emphysema, which my good friend, with whom I've recently written a book, suffers from. Hopefully these measures will save many, many lives.

While Australia's plain packaging measures have made it harder for the tobacco industry to promote its products via packaging and brand design features, big tobacco has found new loopholes to promote its products and to increase their appeal, particularly to young people. And, as the member for Casey said, organised criminals are trying to make the most of this strong Australian legislation through criminal activities. So, once again it's up to a Labor government to close the loopholes that undermine our tobacco control measures.

In a previous life, when I was an adviser to the Queensland health minister, Stephen Robinson, back in the early noughties, the Queensland Labor government introduced the toughest smoking and tobacco laws in Australia. Back then, the first phase included smoking bans at major sporting venues, on patrolled beaches and in children's playgrounds, and there were strict controls on tobacco retailing. Queensland went on to make it illegal to smoke in any indoor area of pubs and clubs and any commercial outdoor eating or drinking area. There were many naysayers back then, but no-one could deny that Queensland is a healthier place, and no-one would consider taking the Sunshine State back to the bad old days of smoke-filled restaurants and bars. Even a party that is grifting off big tobacco wouldn't propose that, surely.

Labor's current commitment is consistent with Australia's obligations as a party to the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, which is an international treaty that aims to protect present and future generations from the harms of tobacco use and exposure to tobacco smoke. Our commitment ensures that Australian laws keep up with novel and emerging products and novel and emerging marketing strategies, particularly to young people. So, this bill modernises, simplifies and streamlines our regulation of tobacco products, keeping up with international best practice. The tobacco regulations that were put in place by the Gillard Labor government in 2011—which, by my calculation, was about 20 prime ministers ago!—unfortunately expire on 1 April 2024. This means that the current suite of regulations for plain packaging and tobacco advertising will lapse. There has never been a more important time to introduce this bill to the parliament.

As I mentioned earlier, Australia's current tobacco related measures are split across as many as eight different laws, regulations, instruments and court decisions. For example, the Commonwealth government's legislation prohibiting certain forms of tobacco advertising is now 30 years old. This convoluted patchwork of regulations, with gaps, has meant that smokers are falling through the cracks. This bill brings together tobacco measures along with 11 new measures into a single streamlined and effective act of parliament, which will re-ignite the fight against tobacco and nicotine addiction. The bill complements the National Tobacco Strategy2023-2030, which aims to achieve a national daily smoking prevalence of less than 10 per cent by next year and five per cent or less by 2030, and to reduce the daily smoking rate among First Nations people down to 27 per cent or below by 2030.

Australia's Commonwealth tobacco control framework, including the Tobacco Advertising Prohibition Act, the Tobacco Plain Packaging Act and all their associated regulations, have been the subject of a lengthy review to make sure they're fit for purpose. The review involved a comprehensive analysis of options to modernise the existing legislative framework for tobacco control, ensuring it addresses current gaps in limitations and assists with tackling future challenges in tobacco control. Without further action by government, including the new measures proposed in the bill in front of the chamber, it would be very unlikely that the current tobacco control measures would achieve the targets that I mentioned before.

Among other things, the bill before the chamber will: provide for updated and improved health warnings on tobacco products to better inform consumers about the effects of tobacco use; improve coverage, enforcement and compliance for tobacco control through updated advertising restrictions, definitions and the introduction of the civil penalties regime; expand advertising prohibitions to reduce the public's exposure to the advertising and promotion of e-cigarettes and other novel and emerging products, particularly those marketed towards young and vulnerable people; restrict the use of additives and ingredients that enhance the attractiveness and palatability of tobacco products; better regulate product design features that are known to make tobacco products more attractive to consumers, including crush balls and novel filters; restrict the use of brand and variant names that falsely imply reduced harm; include health promotion inserts that encourage and empower people who smoke to quit; and include the mandatory disclosure of tobacco product ingredients, sales volume and pricing data, and advertising, promotion and sponsorship expenditure. I'm sure there will also be a complementary targeting of illegal tobacco coming into Australia under the minister—not the health minister, obviously.

These reforms represent a renewed focus on improving the public health of Australians by discouraging smoking and the use of tobacco products, while also bringing them lockstep with the vaping measures that the Minister for Health announced back in May this year. The Albanese government has consulted broadly on the proposed reforms. We held a six-week public consultation period on an exposure draft. Submissions were received from individuals, consumers, academics, public health organisations, state and territory health departments, Commonwealth agencies, tobacco manufacturers, importers, wholesalers, packagers and retailers. Feedback from all of that consultation has influenced the final drafting of the bill. For example, the commencement date was changed from 1 July next year to July 2025 following feedback from industry stakeholders, and a proposed requirement to report on research and development activities was removed. Most importantly, these reforms are supported by robust evidence of the impact of the measures on smoking. The long-term objectives are to reduce uptake, with a particular focus on youth and young adults, because if you reduce uptake in that group, you stop the next generation from becoming lifelong smokers. These measures are designed to make sure we get more people who do smoke to quit. The measures will further strengthen gains made by Australia's world-leading reforms, such as plain packaging.

That proud history when it comes to tobacco control largely sits at Labor's door. We led the world after Nicola Roxon introduced plain packaging, and since then 26 countries have followed her example. They recognise that it's a policy that saves lives and will continue to save lives into the future. I recall fierce opposition to the plain-packaging laws when they were introduced. Then opposition leader Tony Abbott—himself a former health minister in the Howard government—attacked these reforms at the time by saying they weren't health policy but tax policy. In 2009, the same year the coalition raked in nearly $300,000 in donations from big tobacco, the shadow health minister, the Hon. Peter Dutton, said these world-leading, life-saving reports were, in his words, 'A bridge too far.' I kid you not—the current Leader of the Opposition said that tobacco reform was a bridge too far. He just said 'no' and has obviously been saying it ever since. Given that attitude, it's not surprising that when they were in government the coalition did near nothing in their 10-year term to reduce smoking and vaping rates across the country, amazingly, for the first time in 50 years.

I remind you again that the Nationals remain the only major political party to accept donations from big tobacco, accepting at least $276,000 between 2015-16 and 2021-22 from Philip Morris Pty Ltd, shamefully. Australia was once a world leader on tobacco control, and now we are a bit of a laggard. It is no coincidence, as industry dictated policy under the former coalition government.

Unlike under those opposite, the 11 measures in the government's Reignite the Fight Against Tobacco Addiction reforms will put us back into a world-leading position, alongside fellow OECD nations, like New Zealand and Canada, and I think the UK is also making moves—I saw that announcement recently.

The Albanese government is determined to do all that it can to tackle the harm caused by smoking. We want to make sure that in the future people don't take up smoking in the first place. I call on all those opposite to put out their opposition to this legislation, to stub it out and to support this important reform. I commend the legislation to the House.

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