Zali Steggall (Warringah, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

I would like to echo the sentiments of the member for Indi. I strongly agree; I don't want to see the criminalisation of youth. That is a major problem, especially when it comes to First Nations children and their overrepresentation in our criminal system and all of that. But I do have concerns with the number of what is considered to be personal use and I would like a better explanation from the minister as to why a personal quantity has been considered to be nine, and how does that extrapolate over a period of time? Because even if you are talking about one item with a refill, is that a situation where a person can have nine refills on them each day? But there is essential cap on an amount that a person can have access to over a period of a month or something like that.

Because the concern is if you are allowing somebody over 18 to go to a pharmacy, as the member for Mackellar has said, what protections will there be if there is no data being recorded for that situation of going pharmacy shopping? And that does, with respect, result in that comparison between pharmacies and tobacconists. They become similar to a tobacconist in the sense that they are providing a highly addictive and dangerous item without there being any caps or limits. I don't understand that there is any monthly cap, or anything like that, on people being able to access this. If there is no record being kept, then a person does go from pharmacy to pharmacy to get that supply. I do have an issue with the concept that personal use is nine vapes, unless a better explanation can be provided as to what that quantifies, what that reflects over a period of time and whether any caps are going to be in place. What measures are going to be in place to ensure that we don't have pharmacy shopping—jumping from one to the other—and an excessive amount being available to people?

This is a highly addictive substance—or process. We know that people get addicted to it. We know it's incredibly hard for people to stop smoking. We know it's probably going to be incredibly hard for people to stop vaping. So what assistance are we generally providing? What measures are we generally putting in place now, as a result of these amendments, to ensure we are not just leading people down another pathway of addiction?

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