Louise Miller-Frost (Boothby, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Tobacco is the leading preventable cause of morbidity and mortality in Australia. It is the leading cause of cancer in Australia and accounts for 44 per cent of the burden of cancer. Smoking not only causes lung cancer; it causes many other types of cancer, as well as heart disease, stroke, lung disease, diabetes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, emphysema and chronic bronchitis. Smoking increases the risk for tuberculosis, certain eye diseases and problems of the immune system, including rheumatoid arthritis.

Second-hand smoke exposure contributes to approximately 41,000 deaths among non-smoking adults and 400 deaths in infants each year. Second-hand smoke causes throat and lung cancer and coronary disease in adults. Children who have been exposed to second-hand smoke are at increased risk for sudden infant death syndrome, acute respiratory infections, middle ear disease, severe asthma, respiratory symptoms and slowed lung growth.

Smoking in pregnancy reduces the oxygen and nutrient supply to the growing foetus due to carbon monoxide and nicotine in tobacco smoke. It leads to slower growth and development and an increased risk of birth defects, such as cleft lip and cleft palate. Smoking is indisputably a bad thing from a public health perspective and in terms of the health of our nation.

The good news, if there can be any good news in this arena, is that daily smoking rates in Australia are around the lowest amongst the OECD countries and there has been a long-term downward trend in tobacco smoking in Australia. The National Drug Strategy Household Survey showed that, between 1991 and 2019, the proportion of persons aged 14 and over smoking daily more than halved, from 24 per cent to 11 per cent. Nonetheless, tobacco smoking remains the leading cause of preventable deaths and disability in this country.

Labor has a proud history when it comes to tobacco control, and this can be traced to the groundbreaking work by former health minister Nicola Roxon. Former minister Roxon introduced world-leading public health policy for anti-smoking in the form of legislation to introduce plain packaging and graphic health warnings, the Tobacco Plain Packaging Act 2011, and successfully defended the constitutional validity of the government's legislation to control tobacco products in the High Court of Australia. She introduced banning online tobacco promotion, price increases for tobacco products, substantial funding for media campaigns and quit services, a new tackling Indigenous smoking initiative, funding to make nicotine replacement therapy available on the PBS and support for complementary state and territory action. If we have anyone to thank for Australia's reduction in daily smoking rates and related harms, it is former minister Roxon and the Labor government.

This world-leading approach has since been followed by 26 countries, and it is a policy that has saved lives and will continue to save lives. Ten years ago, when former minister Roxon launched this reform, around 16 per cent of Australians smoked. Today, that rate is down to just under 11 per cent. A five per cent drop in smoking rates is equivalent to one million fewer Australians smoking.

While those of us working in the public health sector saw this as a good thing, tackling the cause of so much harm, the tobacco industry met these initiatives with an often savage legal and rhetorical assault. Sadly, those opposite did not support the efforts to reduce smoking harm to Australians and the associated cost to lives and the health system. The then opposition leader, Tony Abbott, himself a former health minister, denigrated these reforms at the time by saying they weren't a health policy but a tax policy. In 2009, the same year that the coalition raked in nearly $300,000 in donations from big tobacco, the shadow health minister, Peter Dutton, said that these world-leading, life-saving reforms were 'a bridge too far'.

The health impacts of tobacco were very well established at the time that these comments were made. There are about 600 ingredients in cigarettes, and they create about 7,000 chemicals when burned, of which we know that some 69 are carcinogens—cancer causing—such as acetone like in nail polish remover, arsenic, the cleaning product ammonia, formaldehyde, more commonly known for use in embalming, and lead. It's pretty clear. The science is well and truly in. There's politics and political pointscoring, and then there's saving lives. I think you have to pick your side.

Now Australian lungs are facing a new scourge: vaping and e-cigarettes. Initially sold as a way to quit smoking, they have turned out to simply be another product of addiction, continuing to do harm to those who use them. Even worse, it's now a gateway to smoking and one that is increasingly being marketed to children and teens in brightly coloured novelty containers and flavours. While it's illegal to purchase e-cigarettes or vapes with nicotine in them without a prescription, vaping with nicotine-free liquids is not illegal and is increasingly popular, particularly amongst young people. A 2021 study published in the Medical Journal of Australia found that most e-liquids contain chemicals known to cause respiratory issues and lung damage when inhaled. Most contained ingredients that have been banned by the Australian drug regulator, the TGA. Most liquids contain substances for which health effects of inhalation exposure are still unknown. A colleague has told me of people coming into an emergency department with oil burns inside their lungs from vaping. It's very difficult to treat this type of internal damage to a delicate structure such as the lungs.

The former government was asleep at the wheel when it came to tobacco control. The opposition did near nothing in their 10 years in government to reduce smoking and vaping rates across the country. Let's not forget 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 Ltd.

That brings us to this bill. This bill is consistent with Australia's obligations as a party to the World Health Organisation Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, an international treaty which aims to protect present and future generations from the harms of tobacco use and exposure to tobacco smoke. The Public Health (Tobacco and Other Products) Bill 2023 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 address the health risks posed by vaping and e-cigarette products. The bill reflects the Australian government's ongoing commitment to improving the health of all Australians by reducing the prevalence of tobacco use and its associated health, social and environmental costs and the inequality it causes. It continues to ensure that Australian laws keep up with novel and emerging products and marketing strategies. The bill modernises, simplifies and streamlines our regulation of tobacco products, keeping up with international best practice.

There has never been a more important time to introduce this bill to parliament, because Australia's current tobacco related measures are split across as many as eight different laws, regulations, instruments and court decisions. For example, the government's legislation prohibiting certain forms of tobacco advertising is now 30 years old. The industry has moved on. This convoluted patchwork of regulations with gaps has meant smokers are falling through those cracks. This bill brings together tobacco measures with 11 new measures into a single, streamlined and effective act to parliament which will reignite the fight against tobacco and nicotine addiction.

The bill will complement the National Tobacco Strategy 2023-2030, which aims to achieve a national daily smoking prevalence of less than 10 per cent by 2025 and five per cent or less by 2030 and to reduce the daily smoking rate amongst First Nations people to 27 per cent or less by 2030. Without further action by government, including the new measures proposed in the bill, current tobacco control measures are unlikely to achieve these targets.

Among other things, the bill will provide for updated and improved health warnings on tobacco products to better inform consumers on the effects of tobacco use; improved coverage, enforcement and compliance for tobacco control through updated advertising restrictions, definitions and the introduction of a civil penalties regime; expanded advertising prohibitions to reduce the public's exposure to the advertising and promotion of e-cigarettes and other novel and emerging products, particularly in young and vulnerable people; restrictions on the use of additives and ingredients that enhance the attractiveness and palatability of tobacco products; better regulation of product design features that are known to make tobacco products more attractive to consumers, including crush balls and novel filters; restriction on the use of brand and variant names that falsely imply reduced harm; inclusion of health promotion inserts that encourage and empower people who smoke to quit; and mandatory disclosure of tobacco product ingredients, sales volume and pricing data, and advertising, promotion and sponsorship expenditure. The bill also provides for future regulation of tobacco product characteristics, including to allow dissuasive measures to be introduced on factory made cigarettes, to help increase knowledge of health harms of smoking and reduce the appeal of smoking.

The Public Health (Tobacco and Other Products) (Consequential Amendments and Transitional Provisions) Bill 2023 deals with the consequential and transitional matters arising from the enactment of the bill. Among other things, it provides application, saving and transitional provisions to allow a smooth transition to the new requirements, including a main transitional period of 12 months to allow manufacturers ample time to bring products in line with the new requirements, along with a retailer transition sell-through period of a further three months.

The government has consulted broadly on the proposed reforms and held a six-week public consultation period on an exposure draft of the bill. Submissions were received from individuals, consumers, academics, public health organisations, state and territory health departments, Commonwealth agencies and, of course, tobacco manufacturers, importers, wholesalers, packagers and retailers. Feedback from this consultation has influenced the final drafting of the bill.

These reforms are supported by robust evidence on the impact of the measures on smoking. The long-term objectives are to reduce prevalence by reducing uptake, with a particular focus on youth and young adults. The measures will further strengthen gains made by Australia's world-leading reforms, such as plain packaging. Smoking harm is an eminently preventable cause of death and disease, and this government is prioritising the health and lives of Australians. It is difficult to think of an argument against a health measure that will save lives and save burden of disease as well as saving future health costs in the system.

Australia was once a world leader on tobacco control, and we are now a laggard. It is no coincidence, when industry dictated policy under the former government. Unlike the policy of 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. We're moving forwards. The Albanese government is determined to do all it can to tackle the harms caused by smoking. We want to ensure that in the future people don't take up smoking in the first place. This is the leading preventable cause of death and illness in this country, and we should be doing more about it.

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