Mark Butler (Hindmarsh, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Health and Aged Care) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Macarthur for his question and interest. Last week I introduced legislation into this place that represents a precious opportunity for this parliament to do something meaningful and lasting for the health of young Australians. E-cigarettes and vapes were introduced to this country as a therapeutic good to help hardened smokers kick the habit of cigarettes. They were not presented as a recreational product, particularly not one that would be targeted and marketed to young Australians.

But we now know, several years on, that that is exactly what they are. Just look at the products and look at where the vape stores set up to sell them. Nine out of 10 of them are within walking distance of our schools. What is undeniable now is that this is an insidious device from big tobacco to recruit a new generation to nicotine addiction. The tragedy is: it's working. One in six high school students and one in four very young adults in this country are vaping. It is now the No. 1 behavioural issue in our schools. In and of itself, vaping is dangerous—ingesting 200 chemicals into young lungs, chemicals used to make weedkiller and nail polish remover, chemicals used to embalm dead bodies. The Dental Association told us a couple of weeks ago about an alarming rate of increase in black gum disease among 12- to 15-year-olds, which they connect to vaping. And we know it is a proven gateway to cigarettes.

That is why we are so determined to stamp out this public health menace for our kids. We've already put in place new import restrictions and additional resources to the Border Force to increase their enforcement activity, and they are doing that. The bill I introduced last week will outlaw the supply, manufacture and commercial possession of vapes in this country other than for genuinely therapeutic reasons. To those who say that this amounts to prohibition, I say: it is no more prohibition than was the regulation of codeine and pseudoephedrine in recent years.

Our extensive consultation around this bill showed that health experts, parent groups and school community leaders expect decisive action from this parliament. That's why so many of them would have been so troubled by the report that James Campbell wrote on the weekend that the opposition are planning to entrench vaping and then milk it to fund their election promises.

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