Zaneta Mascarenhas (Swan, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

It is so wonderful to see how many people in this place are concerned about the role of vaping in our society. When the debate was interrupted, I think I was in the middle of this speech talking about Kodak moments and how there was a time when there was a generation of people who understood what Kodak moments were. What the photography industry needed to do was innovate, and that's why we now see digital cameras. The thing that we've seen, from the tobacco industry perspective, is they had declining rates of smoking, and they were super desperate to increase their rates, so they did their revamp: cigarettes 2.0—e-cigarettes, vaping.

What we've seen is big tobacco investing into developing new nicotine and tobacco products and, as I said yesterday, targeting the most impressionable young people. They've been using sneaky tactics to make vaping seem appealing, like discrete packaging and adding chemicals to improve the aroma. The truth is the tobacco industry is trying to cultivate this do-gooder image. Honestly, it doesn't wash with me. Let's be honest: this is big tobacco trying to sneak nicotine into young people through vaping and explaining that this is a healthier option to cigarettes. As my mother would say, a leopard doesn't change its spots.

Creating this perception that vaping will help people quit smoking is just not true; it's quite the opposite. It's sneaky and it's predatory and it's getting young people hooked on nicotine. Unfortunately, it's working, and that's why this government is acting. This legislation will help stop big tobacco in their tracks. Our reform package, according to Professor Daube, will go a long way towards bringing us the outcomes we need, protecting our young people and protecting the health of the nation. It was a Labor government who introduced plain packaging, and it's a Labor government who's now taking the lead on vaping reform. I commend this bill to the House.

See this speech in context