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

I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

Today I am introducing the Public Health (Tobacco and Other Products) Bill 2023.

This bill builds on the pioneering tobacco control reforms introduced by past Labor governments, including Australia's world-leading tobacco plain-packaging reforms.

It's an honour to stand here today to build on the legacy of my predecessor Nicola Roxon. Tobacco plain packaging was bold policy achieved in the face of some often savage legal and rhetorical assault. It was imaginative policy. And it was world-leading policy. We know that because 26 countries since then have followed Australia's example. It's a policy that has saved lives and will continue to save lives, not just here in Australia but around the world.

When my predecessor the Hon. Nicola Roxon introduced plain packaging, around 16 per cent of Australians smoked on a daily basis. Today that rate is down to just 11 per cent—the equivalent of one million fewer Australians smoking.

The health impacts of that are just enormous. These reforms will mean tens of thousands of families will never have to struggle through the tragedy of seeing a loved one suffer with lung cancer and the vast range of other diseases caused by smoking. Hopefully, countless lives will be saved.

But the gains of those world-leading reforms have been squandered. We were a world leader in 2011. We're a laggard today.

Tobacco use remains the leading cause of preventable death and disability among Australians. It's estimated to kill more than 20,000 Australians each year. It's also the risk factor that is the greatest contributor to the health gap between First Nations Australians and others.

While Australia's plain packaging measures have made it harder for the tobacco industry to promote its products via packaging and brand design features, big tobacco has found new loopholes to promote its products and to increase their appeal, particularly to young people.

It again falls to a Labor government to close the loopholes that undermine our tobacco control measures and to shield Australians against the tricks and tactics of the tobacco industry.

The tobacco regulations that were put in place by the Labor government in 2011 sunset on 1 April 2024. As such, the current suite of regulations for plain packaging and tobacco advertising will lapse unless we take action now.

Australia's Commonwealth tobacco control framework, including the Tobacco Advertising Prohibition Act, the Tobacco Plain Packaging Act and their associated regulations, have been the subject of a long thematic review.

The thematic review involved a comprehensive analysis of options to modernise the existing legislative framework for tobacco control, ensuring it remains fit for purpose, addresses current gaps and limitations, and assists with tackling future challenges in tobacco control.

This includes identifying options to enable Australian laws to keep up with the changing tobacco and technological environment, to address challenges such as novel and emerging products and marketing strategies.

Feedback from two broad consultations undertaken in 2019 under the former government established that there is a need for ongoing regulation to achieve the government's objectives with respect to tobacco control, and that regulatory improvements are essential. To this end, on 30 November 2022, our government announced a suite of reforms (in the form of this bill and proposed regulations) to bring together current legislation and introduce new measures to reduce tobacco prevalence, with a particular focus on youth and young adults.

Public consultation, including the release of an exposure draft of the proposed reforms for six weeks, from 31 May to mid-July this year, has informed the content of this bill. These reforms represent a renewed focus on improving the public health of Australians by discouraging smoking and the use of tobacco products, while also being in lock step with the vaping measures that I announced in May.

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 the existing provisions and introduces new measures to discourage smoking and prevent the promotion of vaping and e-cigarettes.

The bill reflects the Australian government's ongoing commitment to improving the health of all Australians by reducing the prevalence of tobacco use and its associated health, social and environmental costs, and the inequalities that it clearly causes.

This commitment is consistent with Australia's obligations as a party to the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, the FCTC, the international treaty which aims to protect present and future generations from the harms of tobacco use and exposure to tobacco smoke. These reforms also reflect the best available evidence and the experience of other international regulators, such as Canada, New Zealand and Uruguay.

The bill will complement the National Tobacco Strategy 2023-2030, which aims to achieve a national daily smoking prevalence of less than 10 per cent by 2025 and less than five per cent by 2030, and prioritises tackling smoking in First Nations communities to reduce the daily smoking rate to 27 per cent or less by the end of this decade.

Without further action by governments, current settings and tobacco control measures are unlikely to achieve those targets.

Among other things, this bill will provide for:

The bill will allow the introduction of regulations to provide for, among other things:

The powers provided in the bill to make new regulations will allow the government to be responsive to any new approaches introduced by the tobacco industry to promote smoking and to ensure that policies can continue to be informed by best practice and emerging evidence.

The main objective of these reforms is to reduce the daily smoking prevalence by discouraging uptake among people who do not smoke and increasing cessation among people who do smoke.

Additional objectives include ensuring that Australia's tobacco control regulatory framework aligns with international best practice and that Australia meets its international obligations.

Globally, we have seen the momentum on tobacco control continue, with more than 20 countries implementing plain packaging in the years since Australia led the way.

At the same time, we have seen international regulators build on Australia's model for plain packaging through the introduction of standardised cigarette pack sizes and products, and regulation of product design features. We have worked closely with these countries to ensure that we learn from their experience and create strong legislation that is effective and appropriate to the Australian context.

This government is determined to see Australia reclaim its position as a world leader on tobacco control because, quite frankly, lives are at stake. Disadvantaged Australians are paying the price for big tobacco's profits.

The bill also allows Australia to be agile and adaptable, via the regulations, to the ever-changing landscape that is tobacco control.

This ensures that Australia is well placed to apply new policies and adjust controls to further reduce smoking prevalence and address new and novel challenges in the tobacco market.

Although these reforms seek to regulate advertising and promotion of e-cigarettes, they do not address the broader regulation of e-cigarette availability and supply. This will be regulated separately.

The government has committed to introducing new controls on e-cigarette importation, contents and packaging and is working with states and territories to address the black market for e-cigarettes through the therapeutic goods framework and stronger border measures.

This bill signals the dedication of government to reignite the fight against tobacco and eliminate the health, social and environmental inequalities caused by smoking and nicotine addiction.

It provides the foundations for the successful implementation of a number of policies and activities, as outlined in the National Tobacco Strategy, to improve the health of all Australians.

I conclude by saying again that the government are determined to do all that we can to tackle the harms caused by smoking.

I would like to thank those organisations who continue to drive further tobacco control reform in Australia. We want to ensure that, in the future, people don't take up smoking in the first place.

Make no mistake, just as with Labor's world leading plain-packaging reforms, these reforms may be hard fought. We wouldn't be doing our job if they weren't.

The tobacco industry continues to have deep pockets and powerful friends.

This government is up for the fight because we fight on behalf of the most vulnerable and disadvantaged in our society, who bear the brunt of these tobacco company profits.

We're going to bring the same spirit of courage, spirit of action, the same clarity of thought, and I hope the same conviction that Nicola Roxon brought to plain packaging reforms 12 years ago, and we're going to reaffirm Australia's reputation as a world leader in tobacco control.

I commend the bill to the House.

Debate adjourned.