Susan Templeman (Macquarie, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I've been listening to the comments that have been made around the chamber, and it is really disappointing to me that we are not putting health first. We are finding all sorts of reasons, on the other side of the chamber, for not taking strong action to put the health of young people, in particular, first. This is not just the health of kids who are 17, 16 or 15. This is the health of kids who are now only 10, and of those coming behind them—the seven- and eight-year-olds who, before long, will become part of the statistics of children using vapes.

It horrifies me to think that this chamber would fall for a story from an industry which, we know, is so good at spinning a story. Vaping was originally sold to governments and the wider community, right around the world, as a therapeutic product to help long-term smokers quit, a help-people-to-quit product. It wasn't sold as a recreational product, especially not one targeted at kids—but that is what it has so quickly become.

Unfortunately, there is absolute, consistent evidence that young Australians who are vaping now are three times more likely to take up tobacco smoking than young Australians who have never vaped—and this is in a country where we've been really proud to lead the world in tobacco control, in reducing the use of tobacco and in taking measures that mean there is less incentive to be a smoker.

You know, I'm one of those people who grew up in the era of big big-tobacco ads, at the movies and on TV. How quickly it feels like we can go back to that state, where we thought it was okay—in that case, to have a cigarette, or, in this case, to say, 'Oh, we need to allow vaping to continue,' in spite of the things we already know, at this very early stage, about the impacts it has on our kids. It is creating a whole new generation of nicotine dependency. In fact, when I go to schools and talk to schools, it isn't just the principals who say to me, 'Oh, my goodness! Can you do something about vaping?' It's not just the teachers who can see the consequence of nicotine withdrawal and the need for a vape in their students. It's the students themselves who can see what it's doing to their friends and even to themselves.

So this is a time for us to listen to the kids—not just to those who think it's going to be a little bit inconvenient to get along to a GP and get a script. Yes, it may be, and it may put more pressure on those systems, and we're doing everything we can to make that process as simple as possible. But I hope everybody here thinks about the seven-year-old who hasn't yet had a vape, but who might next week and then find that it's just something that they can't stop doing. Think about what that is, and—as if you were that child's mum or aunt or grandparent—just what our decisions here have a consequence on. The sooner this legislation is moved through this parliament, the better. That's why we are taking world-leading action to tackle vaping, and we're really proud to be taking it. These reforms are about protecting Australians, particularly young people, from the harms of vaping and nicotine dependence while making sure that those with an absolutely legitimate need to access it as a therapeutic device are able to continue to get it where it is clinically appropriate.

The latest data from the Australian Secondary School Students Alcohol and Drug survey is very sobering. About one in eight 12- to 15-year-olds and one in five 16- to 17-year-olds have vaped in the past month. About 80 per cent of these young people are using disposable vaping devices. Nearly a third of students tried vaping for the first time when they were 15 or 16, while 23 per cent say they tried it before they were 13. They were 12 years old or younger, not even a teenager. We know that's because the vaping industry, which those opposite continue to defend and support, are targeting young people deliberately.

Social media is awash with advertising for vaping products. Parents are telling me about the vaping stores opening right near their schools, and I see them in my communities. Young people are attracted to the illicit vapes because they are so readily available, and the vapes are deliberately designed by the industry to promote their uptake—their aggressive marketing, their outrageous packaging and their ridiculous flavours.

If we look at the studies that have highlighted the concerns about potential adverse health effects of vaping—and I'm really conscious that these are studies that are happening in the very early years. It takes me to the sorts of studies that happened in the early years of the tobacco industry really getting a grip. There were studies, and they were suppressed. Thank goodness we know what the studies are saying. We can't pretend that we're ignorant. We absolutely know that there are effects like impacts on the developing adolescent brain. There are worse pregnancy outcomes. There is cardiovascular disease, respiratory disease and cancer, and a range of other health risks are also associated with vape use, including severe burns, poisoning and seizures. We're only just beginning to understand the long-term effects of vaping, and I think we all know that it is not going to be good news.

This bill brings in both offences and penalty provisions designed to protect Australians, particularly young people, from the harms associated with illicit vapes. Principally, this is going to be achieved by banning the importation, the domestic manufacture, the supply, the commercial possession and the advertising of non-therapeutic and disposable single-use vapes. All vaping ads on social media and retail websites and the promotion of vaping goods by influences on social media are going to be banned.

The enhanced quality and safety standards, which began earlier this month, have limited flavours to mint, menthol and tobacco, and further enhancements to the standards have been foreshadowed, which include requirements relating to maximum nicotine concentrations, pharmaceutical packaging and labelling. This suite of measures is really trying to take the holistic action needed to properly address the impacts of vaping being felt across our community.

I want to commend the Minister for Education for the work he has done, alongside the New South Wales Minister for Education, Prue Car, in making sure our principals in our schools know what we're doing, why we're doing it and what we could do with them sharing that message. It is their teachers, their parents and their students who are actually going to benefit from this. I really acknowledge the work that you did at the start of the school year, Minister, to raise awareness about it. As I said, when I go to schools it isn't just principals who talk to me about this and it isn't just teachers; it's the students themselves. In fact, about 18 months ago, the student leadership at one school were so concerned about it that they reached out to have a meeting purely on that issue. They came to this place to ask what the government was doing about it. In fact, it was before we were elected, so it was before the last election. They was so concerned about it. This is something the previous government could have acted on. They could have seen what was going on and, rather than falling for the lines they were being fed, they could have taken action.

Let's be clear about what this suite of measures involves. It doesn't ban all vapes. There are express exceptions to the offences and civil penalty provisions around the personal possession and use of legitimate patient access to therapeutic vapes being used to help you stop smoking or manage nicotine dependence. People will still be able to use vapes. Individuals will be able to access those products as part of smoking cessation treatments. But it is limited to the clinical context, with only therapeutic vaping products available at pharmacies via a prescription. The TGA has already published on its website a list of therapeutic vapes that have been notified as meeting appropriate quality and safety standards. Quality and safety aren't things that have gone with the whole vaping industry—there haven't been standards and there haven't been any quality provisions—but the TGA has determined which ones will be suitable. That list can be accessed by patients, prescribers and pharmacists. Between 1 January and 12 March 2024, so just a bit over two months, the TGA received 68 notifications of compliance with TGA quality and safety standards from sponsors who want to supply therapeutic vapes for smoking cessation or for managing nicotine dependence. The Office of Drug Control granted 19 import licences and 17 import permits in accordance with the new importation controls—so they are available. This ensures that Australians who are legitimately using vaping products to quit smoking will still be able to do so, while taking vapes out of the hands of our kids.

We know that the community is awash with disposable vaping, and that's why we've taken the immediate action that we could, outside of parliament, to stamp out vaping. We've already banned the importation of disposable and non-therapeutic vaping products. Since the start of this year, the Australian Border Force and the TGA have jointly seized more than 360,000 imported vapes in operations across Australia. As these operations happen, we're also seeing reports of the links between vaping sales and supply and organised crime, which uses the easy sales to help fund other illicit operations. The Commonwealth has committed $25 million to the Australian Border Force and nearly $57 million to the Therapeutic Goods Administration over the next two years to work on this.

The reforms to the regulation are supported by a commitment between the Commonwealth and every state and territory to collaborate on compliance and enforcement activities. The National Vaping Working Group was formed in November 2023. It has Commonwealth, state and territory health and police departments; the AFP; and the Australian Border Force. This working group is responsible for developing the national vaping enforcement framework, which will support the collaborative, coordinated, and nationally consistent approach that's going to be needed to enforce the regulatory controls.

For too long nicotine vaping products have been freely available at stores due to a legal loophole, and that has been widely exploited. This bill will close that legal loophole and give authorities the power to take genuine enforcement action. Importers and suppliers of illicit vapes are now on final notice that the changes proposed to the TGA will enhance compliance and enforcement efforts. We know that this bill will help ensure that there's effective detection and seizure, by tightening the controls on the supply chain and removing the regulatory distinction between nicotine and non-nicotine vapes, to counter the existing widespread evasion. Vapes will not be lawfully available outside the pharmaceutical supply chain.

We know that those addicted to smoking and addicted to vaping need additional support to quit, and that's why we've committed an additional $29.5 million in funding to increase vaping and smoking cessation support so the support is therefore the people who need it. The funding will improve access to Quitline services across the country, with a new dedicated online hub and mobile app. It was Labor back in 2012—12 years ago—that introduced the world-first tobacco plain-packaging laws, and now, 12 years on, in order to help a different generation of kids, we have an opportunity to lead the world again with these vaping reforms. I ask this parliament: please, do not miss this opportunity to allow this legislation to pass quickly so we know that there is less chance of kids becoming vapers over the next 12 months. This is something we can do really fast. In their hearts, I think everybody knows this is the right thing to do and this is the time to do it.

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