Zaneta Mascarenhas (Swan, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to 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.

David Littleproud (Maranoa, National Party, Shadow Minister for Agriculture) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Therapeutic Goods and Other Legislation Amendment (Vaping Reforms) Bill 2024 and the amendment moved by the member for Cowper. I have the same genuine intent as everyone who stands in this place and in the other place to make sure we formulate good policy that protects children. We all come to this place with that intent with this issue. I was part of a government that moved down a prohibition model, and I'm big enough to stand here today before the Australian people and say I got it wrong. I got it wrong. The statistics don't lie. Only about eight per cent of people who vape today have a prescription. The prescription model didn't work.

As I visit small communities, listening to teachers and headspace representatives, the biggest issue they're facing at the moment is vaping. As legislators of this great country, we have an opportunity; we've been given a privilege to get it right, to admit when we get it wrong and to shift when we have the opportunity. The opportunity sits in front of this parliament. While the intent of the bill and much of what it's trying to achieve go very much to what we want to see happen in terms of the regulation of the product, it's about understanding that what we have done in the past hasn't worked and being big enough to admit that.

I don't contest the science or the health advice. No-one should. It's indisputable. But I've got to say, with all due respect to the Cancer Council and the AMA, that's where their expertise ends. Regulating borders, regulating markets are not the expertise of the AMA or the Cancer Council. And they come to this with the same intent as every one of us in this building—to try and make sensible reforms about what is a scourge on our society. When we see children as young as eight on vapes, we know we've got to do something. What we've done by bringing forward a prohibition model has made it worse so, so we've got to shift the dial and look to what has worked in the past. I acknowledge the previous speaker, the member for Swan, in acknowledging that many of the reforms that were put in place by a Labor government in the past, around plain packaging and about ensuring a regulated point of sale for those that are over 18, have worked. In fact, we saw an 80 per cent reduction in juvenile use as a result of those courageous reforms. At the time, they were courageous reforms, which they should not have been. But they were the right reforms that the minister and the government at the time had the courage to undertake.

When you look at the history, when you look at what's worked and when you look at what's in front of us, then you realise we've got to do something different. We've got to make sure that, at the heart of that, it's protecting the next generation. The greatest achievement of this is that we will see generations in the future not just not vape but not use cigarettes either. That would be a significant accomplishment, to see a significant reduction, if not a removal, of that because of the courageous steps that we take now—not ones that work on a prohibition model.

History has shown for generations that prohibition doesn't work, particularly when you've got a marketplace that has exploded. In essence, the genie's out of the bottle. As the father of four young boys, their potential use of this product, the content and where they may get it frightens me. As someone who was a former agriculture minister, I can tell you that I have had experience managing a border and having an agency that is there to try and protect Australia. To think that we're going to be able to crack down and stop all this at the border is naive. It won't happen. Unfortunately, the consequence of that will be an unregulated product doing more harm, particularly to our children. When we see the consequence of what I voted for in the last parliament—I see that consequence daily. I've got to be big enough to admit that I didn't get it right. But I've got to look at what I can do in getting it right in the future.

The National Party has been clear on this. We've taken that step. As a party room we've understood that, while our intent was right—our intent was about making sure that this product was brought in to try and get people off cigarettes—it hasn't worked. This isn't about big tobacco. In fact, if you want to take big tobacco out of this, you could regulate a product in this country where big tobacco isn't even allowed to actually display the contents of it. Why wouldn't we think about what the options and the possibilities are, that have worked previously, that we've got to be able to regulate a product? We're not trying to be reckless in anything we're doing. We're simply saying that much of the work that a previous Labor government has done with cigarettes should be heralded as a symbol and as an example of how we can minimise harm, particularly for the next generation. We believe in having licensed points of sale. We believe that only people over 18 should have these products. There should be strict verification of that. There shouldn't be packaging targeted at children. That's abhorrent. I think we're all in agreement on that. We should be regulating the contents of this product.

What you've got to understand is that, with the path that we've gone down—saying that you've got to go and get a prescription to go to a pharmacy to get this, when we have over 1½ million Australians already doing this—I think we're naive to think that they're going to change their habits because of that. I don't doubt that there'll be some success at the border and some other places. In fact, the night before last I saw that 30,000 vapes were intercepted at the border. That's about two or three hours worth of vaping. It's not going to touch the sides.

We've got to understand that, yes, there's an opportunity to make sure that we can police better. When you talk about policing, there are also issues around the alignment between federal and state responsibilities. In fact, as someone that caught up with the Queensland Police Service in the last couple of weeks, they're short 4,000 police officers in Queensland alone. When domestic violence and juvenile crime are out of control, the police force don't have the resources to then be pumped into what the government is asking them to do. It's making it harder. We were saying that we were going to police our way out of this. They don't have the resources to do it to start with.

Much of that could be changed, in many respects, if we're honest with ourselves, through a regulated product, through the excise that could be achieved. And the excise should be done in a responsible way, with the medical advice about how we actually can use this product to try and transition people and get them off not just cigarettes but vapes as well, get them off tobacco entirely, and using that excise in a way that would not only educate the next generation of potential smokers and vapers but also be about investing in policing of the border and the streets. An opportunity sits in front of this parliament to look at this differently and to take a dagger to the heart of organised crime that is out there flourishing because of the prohibition model.

I said before that history shows that prohibition hasn't worked. You only have to look at when prohibition was put in place. Who benefited? It was organised crime. This is where we have to look at the past and the things that we have done that have worked. So I think there is an opportunity for this parliament. We won't stand in the way of this bill. It is important that we try to continue to work on a pathway of getting an understanding. But the Nationals haven't changed our position. Prohibition doesn't work. A regulated model will work and gives us a better chance at protecting children. So, when the bill leaves this place and goes over the way to the Senate, it's important that it goes to an inquiry and that we test those principles and theories. I respect that we all come with the right intent, the very purest of intent—all of us. But at some point, at some juncture, when the statistics show that it's getting worse not only here but also in New Zealand, where they've taken this model—a 39 per cent reduction since 2020, when they went to a regulated model—we know that not only is history showing us but the world is showing us. And while we can stand there and beat our chests about having apparently the strongest laws in the world, it will mean nothing if we still see children on these vapes and the next generation on these vapes. I hate these things. I hope my children are never on them and I hope they go nowhere near cigarettes. But I'm a pragmatist, and I have been given the greatest privilege that any Australian has ever been given: to sit in this place and to make a difference. But I'm going to make that difference on the basis of my lived experience and to stand up and say, 'I got it wrong and I'm going to try and get it right as best I can.'

So, I respect the government and all they are trying to achieve; in all honesty, I do. They come to this with the right intent. But unfortunately we are going down a trajectory that has been influenced too greatly—solely—by medical advice. As I said, I don't challenge that medical advice. I'm just saying that the weighting is that the medical advice and the health advice cannot be contested, but that's where it should end. It is in the regulation of it that the police and politicians need to understand—the agencies need to understand—how we can do this better.

I welcome the bill. I can't say that I support the trajectory the government's taken, but I respect their position wholeheartedly. I suspect that at some juncture we'll all be back here again, and I might be standing here saying, 'You were wrong.' I just hope we will all say, 'We got it wrong and we're going to need to change this and get it right, because what we've done in the past hasn't worked.' I commend the bill to the House.

Shayne Neumann (Blair, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'm proud to speak on the Therapeutic Goods and Other Legislation Amendment (Vaping Reforms) Bill 2024. This is world-leading legislation that delivers on our promise to protect children, young people and other Australians from the harm of vaping.

I have no doubt about the integrity and the bona fides of the member for Maranoa and his good intention. But truly, the coalition opposed Nicola Roxon's groundbreaking legislation that the Labor government brought in on plain packaging and a whole range of areas that we undertook in relation to tackling the scourge of smoking and for nine years did very little in relation to this. And I won't take lectures from those opposite, who were so bad in my home state of Queensland, cutting so many police out of the police force that Jack Dempsey, the police minister, lost his seat in the 2015 election. It was a Labor government in Queensland that increased the number of police on the beat to tackle the things that we're dealing with here today. I won't take lectures from those opposite about that. The facts do not bear out what they say.

This bill bans the importation, manufacture, supply and commercial possession of disposable, single-use and non-therapeutic vapes, while preserving legitimate patient access for therapeutic vapes through pharmacy settings for smoking cessation and the management of nicotine dependence where clinically appropriate. It is a public health menace, a scourge, and the rapid rise amongst young people is alarming. This week I spoke to respected GP Dr Cath Hester at the Colleges Crossing Family Practice in my electorate. Cath is a deeply valued member of our community and has been on the board of the West Moreton Hospital and Health Service as well as a representative of the college in relation to GPs. She was talking to me about what GPs deal with each and every day in my area and about the problems of vaping. She agreed, and other GPs in my electorate agree, with the idea of tackling this issue in a prohibitive way but also a therapeutic way, and that's what we're dealing with.

The member for Maranoa and the coalition were wrong about a decade ago on tackling smoking and tobacco rates and nicotine dependency. For nine years they did virtually nothing in this space. They were wrong in that nine years, and their attitude to this scourge could be characterised by indolence and inertia. We're tackling this issue in a respectful but therapeutic way, but also engaging law enforcement and making sure that people can tackle this issue in the right way. That's why what we're doing is making sure that we're introducing new offences and other civil penalties relating to the importation, manufacture, supply, commercial possession and advertisement of vaping goods. We're also banning the supply and commercial possession of vaping goods unless those are included in the Australian Register of Therapeutic Goods or notified to the TGA as being only for smoking cessation or the management of nicotine dependence. We're listening to doctors, listening to law enforcement and building on what we did in government last.

Those opposite come in here and, if you listen to their speeches—I've listened to one or two of them already—you can't quite work out what they really want to do. They want to tackle this issue, but they don't want to do anything about it—and didn't do anything about it for nine years. They left it up to us to take the action. I still can't work out precisely what they want to do. Do they want to educate people? Do they want to do advertisements? I don't think that's what they want to do. If you look at what they did, it was nothing. You've got to believe in politics, society, familial life and domestic life in this country. You've got to look at what people do, not what they say. It's the doers who are righteous. It's the doers who do the right thing. Those opposite have a shocking record in this place.

We are taking steps that listen to the AMA and listen to respected doctors, like Dr Cath Hester in my electorate. We're taking steps. That's why what we're doing here is the right thing to do. Those opposite should not be sitting on a morass of equivocation. They should not be sitting like Humpty Dumpty on the wall waiting for their position to fall one way or the other. They should actually come on board and support it. Learn from the lessons of a decade ago and stop procrastinating. Support it. There is a pathway forward, and they should be supporting this legislation.

I commend the legislation to the chamber, and I condemn those opposite for their failures over nine years in this space. They have let young people fester in this morass and this drug dependency that they should tackle each and every day. That's why this legislation is so critical to the health of our young people. Those opposite should be condemned for their failure.

Zoe Daniel (Goldstein, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I welcome the government's decision to ban the importation, manufacture and sale of vapes except when doctors prescribe them. I acknowledge the comments of the member for Maranoa on the difficulty in this policy area, and this will require close monitoring to see if there are unintended consequences. But the parents that I meet in Goldstein are so concerned about the plague that vaping has become. Vapes are widely distributed at schools. Smoke shops selling vapes have been located too close to schools. Peer pressure is creating teenage addicts of a substance that could well kill them—and now the data is in.

Generation Vape is a research project led by the Cancer Council New South Wales in partnership with the Daffodil Centre and the University of Sydney, and funded by the government. The survey of more than 700 teenagers aged 14-17 has confirmed an explosion in the use of vapes over recent years, with an increase of more than 50 per cent in the five years since 2017. The survey found that 32 per cent of those surveyed have used vapes and 54 per cent had never smoked a cigarette before starting to vape. Access to vapes for these young people has been all too simple. Generation Vape reported that: 80 per cent of the teenagers surveyed declared it easy to access vapes; 31 per cent of those who bought a vape did so from a retail outlet, a tobacconist, a servo, a vape shop or a convenience store; and, disturbingly, 49 per cent of those who bought a vape did so from a friend—or what the survey termed 'a dealer'. Equally disturbingly, 80 per cent of those who did not buy the vape themselves got it from a friend.

This rise in vaping among teenagers is hardly surprising given the extent to which manufacturers have been producing to designed to attract the young. Flavours include chewing gum, fruits, sweets and soft drink. Indeed, one is called 'Juicy Fruity', and it pretty much looks like Juicy Fruit chewing gum. The last Labor government's decision to escalate taxation of cigarettes has had a significant impact on the number of people smoking in Australia. According to the ABS, the prevalence of regular smoking is confined to just 10.2 per cent of people over the age of 15 and has declined by more than 50 per cent since the mid-1990s, so it's no surprise that tobacco companies should have turned their attention to finding a new profit centre, and that is vapes.

No wonder parents are deeply concerned. In the Generation Vape survey, 83 per cent of parents declared their concern about their children vaping, 72 per cent suspected their children were using a vape, and four out of five regarded preventing their children from vaping as a priority. So it is too with teachers—not surprisingly, given that they're in the front line here, spending nearly as much time with children in their care as parents. Forty-three per cent of teachers reported having confiscated two or more vapes a week over a six-month period, 93 per cent declared concern about their students vaping and three out of four considered addressing vaping as a high priority.

The tactics used by tobacco companies have similarities with those being used by gambling interests. Associate Professor Becky Freeman, a public health expert from Sydney University and one of the Generation Vape researchers, makes a number of highly valid points about this vaping legislation. She says it will stop non-prescription e-cigarettes being freely available in our communities, strengthening and streamlining the prescription pathway. But these reforms will make it easier for authorities to stop retailers illegally supplying vapes to kids and non-smokers by limiting access to only people with a valid prescription—and then only from a pharmacy with the personalised support of a doctor to help them quit. Retailers will no longer be able to advertise, supply or commercially possess non-prescription and disposable vapes. The Therapeutic Goods and Other Legislation Amendment (Vaping Reforms) Bill 2024 introduces minimum-quality standards on flavours, colours and ingredients, as well as pharmaceutical-like packaging and limits on allowable nicotine contents to make vapes less appealing to kids and to people who don't smoke. When passed, these laws will stop the Australian manufacture, advertisement, supply and commercial possession of any non-prescription vape.

I acknowledge that some people in my electorate of Goldstein have contacted me to encourage my opposition to this legislation. I have read several stories of vapes paving the way to quitting smoking. While seeing fewer people smoke is the objective, we should also share in this place that vaping is no genuine alternative. It has insidiously invaded the lives of our children, purposefully targeting them over aspiring cigarette quitters. It has been linked to heart and lung damage, including some cases that have resulted in death. Vapes are addictive but far more accessible even than cigarettes owing to the significantly lower price point. Their use as a smoking deterrent simply results in swapping one damaging habit for another. To be clear, those who are using vapes for genuinely therapeutic reasons will be able to obtain a prescription, with the model being that nicotine content is gradually reduced.

One question that I do have before I close is whether the government has allocated sufficient resources to police and enforce these restrictions. The government's committed an extra $25 million to the Australian Border Force and $57 million to the Therapeutic Goods Administration over the next two years to introduce and enforce the reforms. As we know from the illegal trade in cigarettes, that enforcement is a challenge and will be with these restrictions on vapes. ABF commissioner Michael Outram has acknowledged that his organisation is 'pretty stretched', telling Senate estimates last year that wastewater analysis indicated that it was detecting only 20 to 25 per cent of drugs at the border.

That's a pointed reminder, I would suggest, that it will require the best efforts and the complete cooperation of both federal and state law enforcement agencies to ensure that the black market in vapes is minimised, if not eliminated. It will be incumbent on all of us to ensure that this legislation does not have an unintended consequence and create an unregulated black market in which it's even more difficult to manage risks to our children. That said, I will support this bill.

Dan Repacholi (Hunter, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak in support of the Therapeutic Goods and Other Legislation Amendment (Vaping Reforms) Bill 2024. The Albanese Labor government is taking world-leading action to tackle vaping. Our reforms will protect Australians from the harms of vaping and nicotine dependence while ensuring that those with a legitimate need to access therapeutic vapes can continue to do so.

Vaping is an issue that affects people all across Australian society. What is especially worrying, though, is that there has been a huge increase in the number of young people accessing and using vapes. In my electorate, teachers and parents have been worried and frustrated about why it has been so easy for their children to access vapes for so long. Vapes have been advertised with flavours and colours that completely misrepresent how harmful they are. Given how much progress we had made in Australia against young people smoking, it has been frustrating to see how quickly vapes have caught on with young people.

The link between vaping and smoking is very clear. Young Australians who vape are around three times more likely to take up tobacco smoking compared to young Australians who have never vaped. The Australian Secondary Students Alcohol and Drug Survey shows that about one in eight 12- to 15-year-olds and one in five 16- to17-year-olds have vaped in the past month. A factor that is alarming health professionals, parents and teachers so deeply is how young people are when they are accessing these vapes. Nearly one-third of students tried vaping for the first time when they were aged 15 or 16, while 23 per cent of students reported being 12 years or younger. That's 23 per cent of students reporting being 12 years or younger; that's absolutely disgusting.

Vaping is creating a whole new generation of nicotine dependency in our community. Vaping is a major threat to our success in tobacco control. The Albanese Labor government is not going to stand by and let this happen. Enough is enough. The vital reform in this bill will protect our youth from the harms of vaping whilst still ensuring that those struggling with nicotine dependency who have legitimate needs to access therapeutic vapes can continue to do so. Labor is proud to have been the party to keep Australia at the forefront of world-leading health policy. In 2012, we introduced world-leading plain packaging. Labor's world-leading measures have helped Australians to ditch the harmful practice of smoking, and now, in 2024, we seek to lead the world again with these measures against vapes.

While we were out of office, the coalition dropped the ball on this big issue. Big tobacco was allowed to walk in, bringing nicotine dependency back into Australian life. Big tobacco sold vaping around the world as a therapeutic product to help long-term smokers quit. What they didn't mention was that the vapes would also be a recreational product, especially targeted to our kids, but that is what vapes have become.

The Labor government will put Australia back at the front of the pack with a world-leading policy to combat vapes. Labor will put us back on track for a healthier future. We have already closed illegal loopholes used to sell vapes in shops. We have already banned the import of vapes unless they are strictly for a therapeutic purpose and accompanied by an import licence. We are clamping right down. These measures are no joke. Australian Border Force is regularly seizing illegal vapes at the border, and, in early February, a joint law enforcement exercise in Sydney resulted in the confiscation of approximately 210,000 disposable vapes as part of a seizure of $12.5 million of black-market nicotine goods. This additional round of vaping reforms will break bad habits early and strongly reduce access.

This bill bans the importation, manufacture, supply, advertising and commercial possession of non-therapeutic vapes. For those who have struggled with kicking the habit of smoking and have a legitimate reason to use therapeutic vapes to break that habit, this bill ensures that therapeutic vaping goods will still be available through the medical system. This is how it should have always been. The Labor government is also increasing funding to services which will help people kick their habits. Quitline, the national hotline, provides counsellors who can help Australians quit smoking or vaping

With the second stage of vaping reforms, the Albanese Labor government will blow the whole vaping industry away. Goodbye, vaping; we won't miss you. I have a nine-year-old daughter and another daughter, who is about to turn 11, and I can tell you: the threat is real that my daughters will end up vaping one day, and I really hope they don't. This bill will help stop that. We can't buy them at service stations anymore. You can't buy them at a local shop around the corner. This is really good. It's really good for Australia and really good for Australians.

Helen Haines (Indi, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Therapeutic Goods and Other Legislation Amendment (Vaping Reforms) Bill 2024, which amends the Therapeutic Goods Act. This bill bans the importation, domestic manufacture, supply, commercial possession and advertisement of disposable single-use and non-therapeutic vapes.

I welcome these long-overdue reforms to curb the use of vapes in Australia. As a former nurse and regional health researcher, I've dedicated my life to improving the health outcomes of regional and rural Australians. Health—including, importantly, preventive health—is a key concern for the people I represent, the people of Indi. I've long shared my constituents' concerns about the prevalence of vaping, most particularly among young people. While I acknowledge the need for some patients to access therapeutic vapes to help manage their nicotine dependence, the reforms proposed in this bill are much-needed safeguards against the growing health risks posed by the vaping industry.

My office has heard from concerned parents, school principals and health professionals worried about the use of vapes by children, particularly in our schools. I share these concerns, because youth vaping has increased significantly in recent years. According to the latest Australian Institute of Health and Welfare statistics, one in two people aged 18 to 24 have experimented with vape use at least once in their lifetime, and the current use of vapes among young women has increased from 2.4 per cent in 2019 to a staggering 20 per cent in 2023. Lung Foundation Australia reports that, in 2023, 14.5 per cent of all teenagers aged 14 to 17 years old were currently vaping, increasing to 20 per cent for young Australians aged 18 to 24 years. These, in anybody's language, are shocking statistics.

With so many young people now addicted to vaping, I have serious concerns about how these products are advertised and targeted at young people. Most of these vapes come in novelty fruit and confectionery flavours, are sold alongside lollies and popcorn and are designed specifically to appeal to young people. They're positioned as healthier alternatives to cigarettes, but we find ourselves on track to creating another generation of addiction, with elevated risks of serious health issues.

The increase in vaping has translated to three times as many teenagers taking up smoking. Teen smoking in Australia hasn't risen in decades, but here we are. A Curtin University study tested the chemicals of 52 flavoured e-liquids available for sale over the counter in Australia and widely used in vapes. The research revealed a toxic cocktail of ingredients, highlighting the significant—

Sharon Claydon (Newcastle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The debate is interrupted in accordance with standing order 43. The debate will be resumed at a later hour, and the member will be given leave if she wishes to continue speaking when the debate is resumed.