Shayne Neumann (Blair, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to support the Public Health (Tobacco and other Products) Bill 2023. 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 existing provisions and introduces some new measures to discourage smoking. It addresses the health risks posed by vaping and e-cigarette products.

I will begin by addressing the emerging crisis of vaping. You only have to drive around any streets close by a school or a shopping centre to see the prevalent use of vaping and the use of electronic cigarettes. The aerosol that users breathe from e-cigarettes can contain potentially harmful substances, including nicotine, ultrafine particles that can be inhaled deep into the lungs, volatile organic compounds, cancer-causing chemicals and heavy metals, such as nickel, tin and lead.

It's difficult for consumers to know what e-cigarette products contain. Some e-cigarettes marketed as containing zero nicotine have been found to contain nicotine. In fact, most e-cigarettes contain nicotine. Nicotine is highly addictive. It's toxic and harmful. It's harmful to adolescents and young adults. Young adult brain development continues into people's early and mid 20s. It's a health danger to pregnant women and to developing babies. Electronic cigarettes are at least as addictive as normal cigarettes. What's worse is that many e-cigarette users get more nicotine than they would otherwise get in normal cigarettes. Users can buy extra-strength cartridges, which have a higher concentration of nicotine, or increase the e-cigarette's voltage to get a greater hit of the substance.

Worldwide, there have been thousands of injuries and more than 100 deaths associated with vaping, with more than 60 in the United States alone. It was reported in the Medical Journal of Australia that the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have described a new disease: e-cigarette or vaping product use-associated lung injury. Patients with this injury typically present with both respiratory and gastrointestinal symptoms. These respiratory symptoms include coughs and fever and the gastrointestinal symptoms include nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea and abdominal pain. Usually there's no history of respiratory disease until the consumption of these e-cigarettes. Diagnosis can be challenging and the condition can mimic pneumonia. Symptoms can sometimes precede other respiratory symptoms as well. The associated respiratory failure can be severe and require invasive ventilation and intensive care products.

Research done by, for example, the Australian Institute of Family Studies had the following findings. The rates of vaping amongst adolescents is rising in Australia and internationally. Anecdotally, you can see that. Vaping is associated with mental health challenges amongst adolescents, including depressive symptoms, anxiety, perceived stress and, indeed, suicidal related behaviours. Risks include getting onto other products as well.

Families, health professionals and educators need more education. Health professionals must work to manage the risk of vaping by routinely assessing young clients and families for vaping.

This is a major problem. The Australian Institute of Family Studies has found that 4.5 per cent of participants aged 12 to 17 are current e-cigarette users and 14 per cent have tried e-cigarettes. In comparison, 18 per cent had previously tried smoking conventional cigarettes and five per cent were current smokers. Research noted a survey of 950 children aged 13-19 in your home state of South Australia, Deputy Speaker Sharkie. Two-thirds of participants had tried vaping and, of those, 25 per cent had vaped on most days. It's a major problem across the country.

We need to look at that and associated trends, and see the associations with other illnesses and injuries. High perceived stress levels can be found to contribute to increased levels of vaping, so the causes of vaping should be looked at as well. This is a major problem. What we really need to do is look at the emerging research and tackle the issues. This is a big problem. It requires national leadership and it's not just about leaving it to local government, who might regulate where vaping or e-cigarette consumption can take place—in a mall, or outside a school or something. It's not just up to state governments—it's up to federal government to show leadership in this space. It needs urgent reform.

When Medicare was started in the 1980s, the biggest public health challenge was tobacco—40 per cent of men and 30 per cent of women regularly smoked. Today it's about 10 per cent in most of the Australian community. We intend to build on the legacy of Nicola Roxon, the former health minister who introduced world-leading plain packaging. We intend to build on that legacy and implement the next generation of tobacco control reforms. Unfortunately, the gains to be made into tobacco control could be undone by vaping, and that's why we have to tackle that issue straight and head-on.

Initially, governments around the world were told that vaping was a therapeutic product—a bit like doctors used to tell people to have a cigarette to calm their nerves. You remember those ads we used to see around the place, Deputy Speaker Sharkie, that it was cool and mild and the menthol was there. Vaping really has adopted the same methodology in terms of advertising. It has become a big loophole in the history of Australian public policy. A recent study by the Matilda Centre for Research in Mental Health and Substance Use at the University of Sydney found that 26 per cent of people aged 14 to 17 had vaped. A product targeted to kids, sold next to lollies and chocolate bars, vaping has become the No. 1 behavioural issues in high schools. It has become widespread in primary schools as well. Just as they did with smoking, big tobacco has taken another addictive product, wrapped it in a shiny package and added sweet flavours to create a new generation of nicotine addicts. We have to take steps. We have to look at things which were supposedly pharmaceutical products, and that appear that way. No more bubblegum flavours or colourful packaging. Pharmaceutical-style packaging needs to happen, with plain flavours. The import of vapes for sale in retail settings must end. It really must. We can't stand by and allow vaping to create another generation of nicotine addicts.

The previous government wasted time in tackling this, and nothing constructive was done in terms of vaping control. The coalition government did next to nothing on tobacco control. The Albanese government is taking the next critical step, and this legislation is part of this. It's consistent with our form in the policy space—we've brought forward some new control laws. We are updating and improving the graphics warnings on tobacco packaging, including extending warnings to individual cigarettes. We are standardising the size of tobacco packets and products and will control the use of additives in tobacco products like menthols. We will standardise and design the look of filters and limit the use of appealing names that imply reduced harm. We will require health promotion inserts in packs and pouches, and we will improve transparency of tobacco sale volumes and product control. We will improve transparency of advertising and promotional activities, including capturing vapes—as I outlined earlier in the speech—in advertising restrictions. It's absolutely critical we do this.

Tobacco kills more than 50 Australians every day. That's about 20,000 people each and every year. It's a leading cause of preventable death and disability in this country, and this government's aim is to reduce the national smoking rate to less than 10 per cent by 2025 and less than five per cent by 2030. For First Nations people, we want that below 27 per cent by 2030. These new laws will take effect from 1 April 2024. The industry will be given a year to comply, with retailers given a further three months.

Australia has been a leader in public health measures to discourage smoking, but after a decade of inaction the gains of Labor's world-leading plain-packaging laws have been totally squandered. Since the inception of plain packaging, big tobacco have become increasingly creative and cunning in their marketing tactics. The legislation before the chamber will allow Australia to reclaim its position as a world leader in tobacco control.

The opposition leader once described Labor's life-saving reforms as 'a bridge too far'. Imagine saying that. He really said that, 'a bridge too far'. That's what the Leader of the Opposition said about Labor's life-saving reforms. The coalition has been on the wrong side of history before on tobacco control, but these reforms should be bipartisan.

The government is determined to support Australians tackling nicotine dependency. These reforms will cease any form of incentive. They complement the government's commitment to stamping out vaping. The bill, in general, is about this: it consolidates the framework into one act, thereby streamlining the operational laws. It modernises and simplifies existing provisions and introduces some new measures to discourage smoking and address the health risk posed by vaping and e-cigarette products. And it does reflect the government's commitment. The commitment is consistent with Australia's obligations as a party to the World Health Organization's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, which aims to protect present and future generations from the harms of tobacco use and exposure to tobacco smoke. It continues to ensure Australia's laws keep up with novel and emerging products and marketing strategies.

The bill modernises, simplifies and streamlines our regulation of tobacco products. There has never been a more important time to introduce this bill to the parliament, because Australia's current tobacco related measures are split across several different laws, regulations and court decisions. This convoluted patchwork of regulations with gaps has meant smokers are falling through the cracks and big tobacco is making use of those loopholes.

This bill brings together tobacco measures along with 11 new measures, making a single, streamlined and effective act of parliament that will reignite the fight against tobacco and nicotine addiction. The bill will complement the 2023-2030 National Tobacco Strategy, where it aims to achieve a national daily smoking prevalence of less than 10 per cent—absolutely crucial.

Without further action by the government, including new measures proposed in this bill, current tobacco control measures are unlikely to achieve the targets, and that was happening under the previous government. Things were not going well. First Nations people's use of tobacco products was increasing and vaping is out of control. This bill includes measures for future regulation in 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 government has consulted broadly on the proposed reforms and held a six-week public consultation period on the exposure draft of the bill. Submissions were received from individuals, consumers, academics, public health organisations, state and territory health departments, Commonwealth agencies, tobacco manufacturers, importers, wholesalers, packagers and retailers. These reforms are supported by robust evidence of the impact of measures on smoking. The long-term objectives are to reduce prevalence by reducing uptake, with particular focus on young people.

We have a proud history on this side of the chamber of taking action on tobacco control. We know this because 26 countries followed our lead when Nicola Roxon was the health minister. Ten years ago, when she introduced plain-packaging reform, around 16 per cent of Australians smoked. We've got it down much lower today. Australia was once a leader in tobacco control, but now we're a laggard. We were apathetic, inert and lethargic under the previous government. It is no coincidence that industries dictated policy under the former government. Eleven measures in the Australian government's reignition of tobacco reforms will put us back into a world-leading position alongside fellow OECD nations.

The Albanese Labor government is determined to do all we can to tackle smoking—tackle the causes and tackle the effects. We need to tackle the harm caused by smoking as well. We want to ensure that in future people don't take up smoking in the first place. It is not cool to smoke. It is not cool to vape. It doesn't make you friends. And it's important that you think about the consequences of picking up that vaping instrument, picking up that cigarette, picking up that cigar, picking up that pipe. When you undertake that, that is a lifetime addiction and, as a consequence, it's a cost to you, your health, your family and your family's financial future. I commend the bill to the House.

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