Michelle Ananda-Rajah (Higgins, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Vaping is a pox upon our house—this House and our entire nation. Currently in Australia there are 1.7 million people who regularly vape, and amongst high school students that number is one in six.

Why is vaping so problematic? It's problematic for many reasons. One is that vaping is a gateway drug to nicotine addiction. We know that people who vape on a regular basis are three times as likely to go on to become smokers, and that's a huge problem, because smoking and tobacco use are the No. 1 risk factor for death in Australia. This is based on evidence tabled by the National Tobacco Strategy last year. Tobacco use is the No. 1 cause of death, followed by a range of other risk factors. It's higher than a poor diet, it's higher than physical inactivity, it's higher than alcohol use and it's higher than illicit drugs. At the moment in Australia, smoking prevalence is around 11 to 12 per cent. We want to drive those rates down, and the National Tobacco Strategy discusses that. We are aiming to drive smoking rates down to 10 per cent or less by 2025 and to five per cent or less by 2030. But it's not going to be achievable unless we tackle the scourge of vaping.

Vapes were originally sold as a therapeutic device to help smokers get off the cigarettes. In fact, the reverse has occurred. These devices were so poorly regulated that big tobacco essentially used them as a marketing tool to hook people and turn them into nicotine addicts. They have interesting flavours—a whole variety of flavours, including strawberry. They look like highlighter pens or USBs. The vaping stores have cropped up throughout our streets and suburbs, and most of them are within 50 metres of a school. In fact, big tobacco is aiming to turn a young generation of Australians into nicotine addicts, essentially.

Vapes themselves, however, are not just full of nicotine, they are actually a chemical cocktail. We don't actually know what is in these substances, but we have got evidence that they can cause severe lung injury. There is a condition called EVALI, e-cigarette and vaping acute lung injury, which has been well described in medical literature. It shows that vapes are associated with severe lung injury, which can result in intubation and ventilation in intensive care, as well as lung transplantation for those patients who are lucky enough to get access to lung transplants. There is widespread community concern around this issue. In fact, reforms that we've already tabled with the banning of the importation of vapes in January of this year have been widely supported by the community and by a range of public health experts.

Our second tranche of reforms, which is the substance of this bill, will aim to ban the sale and marketing of vapes in the streets and suburbs of our communities. This approach has been endorsed by a range of organisations, including peak medical groups such as the AMA and the RACGP, as well as others. The state and territory health ministers have also endorsed this legislation, so we would urge support from everyone in this House.

But it's not just the peak groups, ordinary Australians arealso very interested and animated by this issue. My own constituents have stated on a local Facebook group: 'As a paediatrician and a parent of teens, I have significant concerns about the impact of vapes. Nicotine and up to 200 other toxic chemicals contained in vapes impact on the current physical and mental health of young people. We see this firsthand in our interactions and consultations with young people. I also have significant concern about the long-term impacts and effects of vaping. If we wait for long-term data, it will be too late. We need to act now. Indeed, there is evidence that vaping on a regular basis has an adverse impact on adolescent brain growth. We also know that it has an adverse effect on pregnancy outcomes and it can contribute to accelerated cardiovascular and respiratory disease.'

Another constituent said: 'Sensible regulation is a strong, positive move towards ending the youth vaping crisis. Regulating retail sales of nicotine vaping products, including strict age verification requirements, will stop the black market in its tracks and keep dodgy products out of the hands of children.' And that's the message that we are hearing loud and clear: the community want action and we are indeed delivering on that.

The legislation that we are tabling will introduce offences and civil penalty provisions designed to protect Australians, particularly young people, from the harms associated with illicit vapes. This will be achieved by banning the importation of vapes, which was done back in January of this year, as well as the domestic manufacture, supply, commercial possession and marketing of non-therapeutic and disposable single vapes. All vaping advertising on social media or on retail websites and the promotion of vaping goods by influencers on social media will also be banned. Those flashing lights signalling 'vapes sold here' that you drive or walk past in our streets will be gone. They will be made unlawful.

We're also enhancing the quality and safety standards associated with the manufacture of vapes. These commenced back in March of this year. We have limited the flavours to mint, menthol or tobacco, and we are also foreshadowing other standards, such as the requirement to limit the maximum amount of nicotine in the vape, as well as plain pharmaceutical packaging, and very clear labelling. In other words, we are dialling down the flashing lights and dialling down the marketing so that these devices just simply do not look enticing enough to hook people.

The important message here is that we're not taking a punitive approach to the individual. We're not out to target the individual, but we are certainly going for big tobacco. That is why we introduced the ban on the importation of vapes back in January of this year. Since that ban came through, we have seized 1.5 million vapes—1.5 million. It is huge. That's a mountain of vapes. That's 1.5 million fewer vapes in the hands of Australians, including children. We're trying to choke off the supply, but we need to do more.

The issue now, of course, is that we have a group of Australians who are essentially dependent on nicotine. I think it's important to talk a little bit about the kinds of problems that these people may encounter as access to vapes diminishes. Nicotine withdrawal is well described. It's something that I had to deal with in my medical practice in hospital, and it can manifest in many ways. People rarely say that they are withdrawing from nicotine or smokes; they just don't say it. Instead, it manifests as irritability, problems with concentration, difficulty sleeping and, of course, finally aggression. These manifestations can occur not only in adults but also in children. I think it's important, particularly for parents, as well as for schools, teachers and principals, to be aware that there may be children in their midst who are not disclosing that they are regular vapers but who will manifest problems with nicotine withdrawal.

We are committing close to $30 million towards smoking cessation services. That includes bolstering the Quitline. It is also important to understand that access to nicotine replacement therapy is widely available. Nicotine patches, gums and sprays can be purchased over the counter at pharmacies and sometimes even at supermarkets. They are widely available, and they can be used by anyone over the age of 12, depending on the product labelling. But further support is also needed, sometimes with counselling and with psychotherapy. My advice to parents and to persons in authority, like schoolteachers and principals, is to flag these issues early with your organisation. I advise parents to take their children, particularly, to their local doctor for advice on how to manage nicotine withdrawal. GPs are well versed in doing this work. They are professionals. They've done it for decades, fighting the fight against big tobacco.

The Commonwealth has also committed an additional $25 million to the Australian Border Force and $56 million to the Therapeutic Goods Administration over the next two years to enforce this work. A National Vaping Working Group was formed in November 2023, comprising the Commonwealth, state and territory health and police departments, the AFP and Australian Border Force. It's really important that this work continues in a very collaborative fashion, because obviously the Commonwealth can create the legislation but it needs to be operationalised, and big tobacco are sneaky. These illicit operators will try to find any weakness in order to ply their trade. We need to ensure that all our agencies in our state and federal governments, as well as other groups, are working collaboratively, and that is something we are supporting with this funding.

Finally, I would also like to say that, once upon a time, Australia led the world when it came to tobacco control and smoking cessation. Indeed, it was a Labor government, the Rudd and Gillard governments, and a Labor health minister, Nicola Roxon, who took on big tobacco, with plain packaging. We are now picking up that baton. It is commendable that this minister, Minister Mark Butler, is willing to take on this scourge and do something about it. I commend this bill to the House.

Kate Chaney (Curtin, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'm supportive of any measures that will curb the insidious uptake of nicotine vaping by our young people. The rapid rise of vaping amongst young people is a huge issue in my community. It was one of the first issues that were raised with me when I was elected, and it continues to be raised again and again by constituents. I've had more than 40 individual emails about kids and young adults vaping, all of them worried about the harmful long-term health effects of nicotine addiction.

For so many years, Australia was a world leader in tobacco control, but, with the increase in recreational vaping, it feels like we've lost our way. So I commend the government for introducing the Therapeutic Goods and Other Legislation Amendment (Vaping Reforms) Bill 2024, which prohibits the importation, domestic manufacture, supply, commercial possession and advertisement of non-therapeutic vapes and vaping goods. This is aimed at stopping the supply of non-therapeutic vapes and stamping out the illicit vaping black market. Its aim is to criminalise not vape users but rather vape suppliers. I note that this bill is the final stage of the government's vaping reforms, following a series of regulation changes intended to address the illicit vaping market and its harms on the Australian community. This House has spoken previously about the provision of medical-use vapes as a tool to assist with nicotine dependency. This bill is not about prescription vapes, which can be regulated and provided to patients in need. This is about non-prescription vapes that are being sold in an unregulated market.

The legality of non-prescription vapes in WA is actually different to the rest of the country. In WA, non-prescription vapes, both those containing nicotine and those without, have been illegal since the 2016 court case that found that vapes breached the tobacco control act, which prohibits any product that looks like a cigarette or a cigar. But, despite this ban, vapes are still everywhere in Western Australia. Last year, I was contacted by distressed constituents about a vape shop that had opened on Rokeby Road in Subiaco, 120 metres from Subiaco Primary School. The shop was branded, outfitted and advertised as selling vapes despite the fact that selling vapes was illegal. I'm pleased to say that, along with other community voices, I drew attention to the vape store, and the Subiaco council took action. It's no longer there, but this should not be allowed to happen. In WA, single-use vapes may be technically banned, but the black market continues to publicly and blatantly exist, and it appears that the biggest issue is a complete inability to enforce the prohibition.

That brings me to this bill. I'm pleased that the additional measures in this legislation include creating structures to enable better enforcement through state and federal governments working together and also higher penalties relating to importation, domestic manufacture, supply, commercial possession and advertisements. This is great for WA. Cutting off imports at the border is essential to halting the supply of vapes reaching Australia. Allowing the seizure and forfeiture of vaping products that have been commercially supplied or manufactured empowers state and territory officials to carry out enforcement powers under the new reforms.

Having a coordinated approach between federal and state governments will be essential. There'll be a national vaping working group with senior members from state and territory health departments and police forces, as well as the Australian Border Force, the TGA and the AFP. So, after this legislation is passed, in WA it will now be up to the health and police departments to take an active and collaborative role to enforce the laws that we now have in place.

I do have one concern about the bill. The bill aims to stop the supply of vapes by prohibiting commercial possession, yet the term 'commercial possession' is not defined and is expected to be defined in the regulations. I am concerned that this definition could be so broad that addicted individuals could be caught up in the new criminal charges, so I urge the government to clarify this definition to strike that balance between the need to crack down on vape suppliers and the desire to keep individuals out of the criminal justice system.

We will hear a lot of noise from the tobacco lobby and related parties about why we should not ban vapes but just tax them instead. If you hear this message, I'd encourage you to follow the money. You'll only hear this pro-vaping message from those who stand to benefit from people vaping, whether it's the tobacco companies or the political parties that receive donations. The National Party has taken nearly $400,000 from Philip Morris over the last decade, and I'll be very interested to see how the National Party votes on this piece of legislation.

The reality is that nicotine in vaping is damaging and addictive. ANU research has shown that in the long term nonsmokers who vape are three times as likely to take up smoking as nonsmokers who don't vape. That is why the tobacco industry wants to see vapes normalised: it's their survival and expansion plan—at the cost of our kids. They're trying to build a new generation of smokers. I'm pleased that the government has committed to a public health awareness campaign and further funding for smoking cessation support services to complement the measures in this bill and to ensure that there'll be effective support for those who need it to help them quit nicotine products.

I hear time and time again the growing community and expert concern, not about smokers transitioning down to vaping but about young nonsmokers transitioning up to vaping and then on to smoking. In the words of a 23-year-old constituent, 'Most of my friends vape and none of them were smokers before.' I think that says it all. I've heard stories about how hard it is to quit vaping because you can do it anywhere, even in class at school. I've heard of vapers actually switching to cigarettes to try to quit because at least it's less socially acceptable and you have to go outside, which forces them to do it less often.

As with so many things, the success of this legislation will depend on state and federal cooperation. I implore the WA government and the federal government to work together to enforce these important new laws in the interests of our young people. Thank you.

Sam Birrell (Nicholls, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

At the outset I just want to say that nobody wants to see Australian children having access to vaping products or becoming addicted to vaping, and I think that's the sentiment across this parliament. So, the debate is: what's the best way to reduce Australian children's access or addiction to vaping or their trying vaping in the first place? That's the debate we're having. It's a little bit like emissions reduction: we all want to see emissions reduction; it's not about 'if' we act; it's about the 'how'. And we should have that debate about the 'how'.

It's clear that the current prescription-only model is failing, with only around 10 per cent of vapers purchasing their product legally through prescriptions. We're very concerned that entrenching this existing failing model will not prevent children from having access to vaping products—it hasn't so far—and will further drive the sale of these products to the black market.

The government has also failed to establish or fund its promised illicit tobacco and vaping commissioner. And the resourcing of enforcement measures at the borders and the point of sale has been grossly insufficient. Critically, the government has failed to explain how their legislation will prevent children from accessing vaping products, how it will not further fuel the black market and how they will adequately fund enforcement measures, both at the border and at the point of sale, and measure the success or failure of the policy.

It would be irresponsible not to demand further investigation into these issues through a Senate committee inquiry before we finalise our position on this legislation. And we will not stand in the way of this legislation passing through the House so that we can thoroughly scrutinise this critical issue in the Senate. And the government's failure to control the illicit vaping market and its failure to protect children against the proliferation of vaping products means that greater scrutiny is absolutely essential.

Now, just to say a bit on the black market, currently the vaping black market is estimated to be worth $1 billion, which is fuelled by the importation of more than 100 million illicit disposable devices each year. We have seen, particularly in Victoria, the consequences of fostering a lucrative black market in tobacco and vaping—a string of fire bombings and other serious crimes that have occurred during a brutal turf war between criminal gangs fighting to control the market.

The latest National Drug Strategy Household Survey found that one in 10 Australians under 18 are current vapers. This represents a fourfold increase since 2019—an unacceptable situation. In Victoria alone the black market for vapes has been valued at up to $500 million. Critically, the government has to explain how this legislation is going to be enforced, how it will prevent children from accessing vaping products and how it will not further fuel the black market.

Now, one of the great contributions to this debate and to this legislation has come from the member for Cowper, and I know it comes from the member through lived experiences and through a desire to achieve what we all want to achieve, which is reducing vaping, amongst children particularly. He makes sense. He criticises the government for failing to control the illicit vaping market and failing to protect children against the proliferation of vaping products that have exploded in availability through a black market driven by organised crime. The member for Cowper is alarmed, as we all are, at the proliferation of vaping amongst young people. The member accepts the reality that a $1 billion black market vape trade exists in Australia, fuelled by the importation of more than 100 million illicit disposable devices each year. And he recognises that the resourcing of enforcement measures at the borders and at the point of sale has been grossly inefficient.

I think the most important thing the member for Cowper brings to the table is that policy measures such as prohibition have historically not worked. Now, it takes humility to admit when your policy wasn't quite right. But it's also necessary for us to look at what we've tried to do with the best of intentions as a parliament and change our approach if the approach isn't working, and that's what the amendment from the member for Cowper seeks to do.

I notice that the AMA and some other health experts support a prohibition model, and people say, 'Oh, we have to listen to the AMA; they're the experts'—or other health groups. No-one's arguing that vaping is good for you. No-one's arguing that vaping is good. And the AMA are not experts in public policy or how to enforce or encourage certain behaviour in people. So, whilst I respect the AMA and I respect their position, I think this is about the mechanism we use in order to get people to stop doing a certain thing. The debate in this place is about prohibition versus a regulated model.

I just want to draw attention to my good friend the member for Higgins, who I think is making a good contribution in this place. But she made the point earlier that it was a Labor government, with Nicola Roxon as the health minister, who led the charge on reducing smoking with plain packaging and a regulated model putting money into advertising. Well, that's the model we're talking about here for vaping. What Labor did then—they didn't prohibit smoking, because they knew that wouldn't work, because they knew it would lead to a black market—was a regulated model. And I support some of the things that were done during that government, which the member for Higgins told us about. But it was a regulated model and involved using the revenue to try to drastically reduce the number of people smoking—and it's had some good effects. What we're saying is that that model can work in this case, and that's the important point I think we need to make.

There's no doubt that vaping is out of control, I hate seeing it; we all hate seeing it. We hate seeing children having access to these products. We don't know what's in them. They're imported. They're not subject to any control in manufacture or requirements to be upfront or to identify what's in them. The current situation is unsustainable. How will we protect our children if all we do is create a bigger black market? As with tobacco, the rewards are worth the risks for criminals. Losing shipments at the border is not a deterrent; the ones that inevitably get through more than make up for it.

In clear acknowledgement of their lack of action on enforcement, the government supported the coalition's amendment to establish a new illicit tobacco and e-cigarette commissioner within the Australian Border Force. We've called for the urgency of putting the commissioner in place to adequately address the tobacco and vape black market, but the government has failed to do so. The Albanese government must come clean on this legislation and say how it will be enforced, how it will stop the illegal trade flourishing and how it will protect Australian children.

In conclusion, I want to commend the member for Cowper on the approach in his amendments. It comes from lived experience. When we have people who have expertise in certain areas—and law enforcement is part of the expertise of the member for Cowper—we should listen to those people. When I was elected, this was not an issue that I came to this place with a specific view on. I was happy to listen to both sides. All I want to see is less vaping—and no vaping amongst people who are under 18. How do we best do that? It's the how, not the if. I think that previous approaches to the reduction of smoking, through a regulated model, indicate that that's the direction we should go in and that the prohibition model, particularly as it's currently being operated, is not working. Again, we all want to see an end to this. How do we do it? We need to have a constructive conversation and be prepared to change our position as the evidence mounts.

Allegra Spender (Wentworth, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Therapeutic Goods and Other Legislation Amendment (Vaping Reforms) Bill 2024. I have reflected on the remarks of the member who spoke immediately before me, and I would like to draw a distinction between where cigarettes have been and where vaping is now. I think cigarettes have been built into the culture of Australia over many, many decades, and we are doing our very best, through regulation, to reduce that dependence on cigarettes. Vaping is a new form of nicotine dependence that has emerged very quickly and very strongly, and very much amongst our young people. My nervousness about what the member suggested, in terms of pursuing a purely regulatory model, is that it misses the opportunity to stamp out vape dependence more broadly, except in the case of nicotine cessation or smoking cessation. If we look back in time, 100 years ago, if we had the opportunity to stop smoking before the dependence started, would we have jumped in—and should we have jumped in? I think the answer is actually yes in that situation. I think it is going to be very hard for us, given the extent to which vaping has taken hold, to take it away from our society. At the same time, I think we should still try, because this is a relatively new area. It is an area that is still emerging, and habits haven't been formed over a lifetime in the same way that they have for cigarette smoking.

To come back to the reason why I support this bill, the availability of vapes is of enormous concern to my community. The approach has been low regulation—you can't sell nicotine vapes in our stores; you have to get a prescription for that. But these nicotine vapes are absolutely everywhere. In my electorate of Wentworth I was appalled, as was the principal, to find that a tobacco shop had opened just two doors down from the entrance to my old school, with tobacco vapes out the front. In that particular situation, I know that the store was approached by the health department. They looked at it and found that they were selling nicotine vapes. My community is very concerned that that shop and other shops like it couldn't be closed down and that very little action could be taken. I think my community is looking for much stronger action on vapes. Vaping is being directed at our children, and it is unacceptable. We see the nicotine vapes, in bright colours and in flavours like bubblegum and banana milkshake, stacked on shelves alongside lollies and chocolates. That's exactly what I saw in my community. Parents were outraged.

This is not a story that's unique to Wentworth. Across New South Wales one-third of 14- to 17-year-olds have used vaping products, and more than half of that group have used a product they know to have contained nicotine. Under the current regulations, which aren't working, they should only have been able to get those through their GP, but that is not how it is currently working. The current regulations are not fit for purpose, and so I applaud the government for trying to take action.

Among other things, this bill implements a general definition of vaping products, accounting for the rapidly evolving market determined to avoid regulation. It places penalties on the importation and manufacture of vapes as well as significantly restricting the advertisement and spread of health misinformation regarding these products. I think these changes will help put an end to the tobacco industry's insidious marketing of vaping products to children, which is putting the health and wellbeing of our young people at risk, but I acknowledge this is going to be hard to implement, and I think the devil is absolutely going to be in whether we can actually implement this effectively. This is an area where I'll be following the government actions very closely, because I think we would like to remove the prevalence of vaping across our community and really reduce that, but how we do that is not going to be simple. This legislation is a start, but it is going to be all in the implementation in terms of whether it has the impact that we across the community want it to have. But the legislation is, at least, a first step.

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

I want to thank the member for Wentworth for her contribution and for the contribution of all members, but the member for Wentworth has been a strong advocate for action in this area. She talks about her experience of a vape store setting up just down the road from her old school, and you think, 'What a coincidence, Deirdre Chambers!' But the experience across the country is that nine out of 10 vaping stores have been set up in walking distance of schools, and it's not a coincidence. It's a deliberate decision because those stores know that their target market are schoolkids, and it's an absolute outrage.

Today, I'm summing up the Therapeutic Goods and Other Legislation Amendment (Vaping Reforms) Bill 2024. This bill builds on Australia's pioneering tobacco control reforms that go back 50 years but also include our world-first tobacco plain-packaging reforms and the Public Health (Tobacco and Other Products) Act 2023 that was passed in parliament just before we rose in December. Consistent with these reforms, the Australian government is now introducing world-leading vaping reforms to prevent serious current and future population health risks.

Vaping is a public health menace. The rapid rise in vaping among young people is particularly alarming. The latest national data showed that in the year to June 2023 one in six high school students had recently vaped—a fourfold increase since the previous survey in 2017. This underscores widespread and serious concern among public health advocates, policymakers, practitioners, parents and school communities about vaping in this country. Strong and decisive action is needed to arrest and reverse this increase in vaping and to prevent long-term adverse effects on population health before it is too late.

The Therapeutic Goods and Other Legislation Amendment (Vaping Reforms) Bill 2024 addresses these concerns through stronger regulation and enforcement. The bill is the centrepiece of our reform package and supplements import controls that were instituted at the border earlier this year. Specifically, the bill bans the importation, manufacture, supply and commercial possession of disposable single-use and non-therapeutic vapes while preserving legitimate patient access to therapeutic vapes through pharmacy settings for smoking cessation and the management of nicotine dependence, where clinically appropriate.

To achieve this outcome, the bill extends the operation of the Therapeutic Goods Act to all vapes, irrespective of nicotine content or therapeutic claims. This is appropriate and necessary in the circumstances to address strategies used by companies and criminal syndicates to avoid detection and seizure by mislabelling vapes to conceal nicotine content. Such tactics, for so long, have frustrated compliance and enforcement efforts by the Therapeutic Goods Administration, border authorities and the states and territories by requiring laboratory testing of the vapes before any action can be taken.

Vapes are marketed to young people aggressively in online advertising and other youth focused media channels, with product flavouring and design explicitly intended to contribute to their appeal and their uptake among young people. This is unacceptable, particularly noting the highly addictive nature of nicotine and the exposure to other dangerous chemicals. This is a crisis that deserves our national attention. The Commonwealth and all states and territories, Liberal and Labor alike, are committed to collaboration on compliance and enforcement activities. This is reflected in the establishment of the National Vaping Working Group, comprising Commonwealth, state and territory health and policing departments, the Australian Federal Police and the Australian Border Force. This working group is responsible for developing the national vaping enforcement framework, which will support a collaborative, coordinated and nationally consistent approach to enforcement.

Under the bill, there are significant penalties for the importation, manufacture, supply and commercial possession of disposable single-use and non-therapeutic vapes. Consistent with the federal cooperative scheme, the Commonwealth will take responsibility for enforcing importation, manufacture, sponsor, supply and advertisement. The states and territories will take responsibility for enforcing wholesale supply, retail supply and commercial possession. The Australian Border Force will lead enforcement at the border. The Therapeutic Goods Administration and state and territory health officers will exercise powers and functions in concert with police authorities as required, and that will be particularly when organised crime is involved.

The focus of the bill is to criminalise unlawful advertisement and supply. Strengthening the regulation of all vapes through enhancing border controls, banning all disposable single-use and non-therapeutic vapes and ending the supply of vapes outside of pharmacy settings will make it easier to identify and disrupt the illicit supply and advertisement of vapes and to take appropriate enforcement action. This is needed to protect young Australians, in particular.

For the first time, under the Therapeutic Goods Act there will be offences and civil penalties for the commercial possession of vapes outside of appropriate clinical settings. We're not interested in penalising vape users. These offences and penalties are aimed squarely at unlawful retailers and operators of warehouses, as well as other persons with significant quantities of vapes who deny any involvement in commercial supply. These are tiered offences, with higher maximum penalties depending on the quantities of vapes that are possessed.

The new ban on possession includes an exception for personal use, including by young Australians, who are deliberately being targeted by companies and criminal syndicates determined to make a profit. This bill is not about penalising persons who are using vapes, whether they are adults or children. It is about ensuring strong deterrence from illegal conduct that may harm an entire generation and future generations of Australians.

This bill has been through a process of extensive consultation and input from the Australian community, including from public health experts, cancer groups, tobacco control groups and many, many others besides. A lot of work has gone into the development of the bill to ensure that it appropriately responds to the scale of the public health issue that it seeks to address. I want to acknowledge the immense effort given by all of those who had a part in its development, including stakeholders from across the community as well as officials from the Therapeutic Goods Administration, the Australian Border Force and the Department of Health and Aged Care, to name but a few. A lot of people have worked very hard to get us to this point on behalf of generations of young people, both today and into the future. To all those who did, I say this: you have the thanks and the gratitude of the Australian people and, most particularly, from young Australians and their parents, their teachers and their school communities.

I'd also like to acknowledge the engagement of all those in this place who have spoken in support of the bill, particularly those members of the crossbench who have been such strident and vocal supporters of these reforms. Parents and young Australians are grateful for the support that you gave, both inside and outside this place, and that support will be particularly important if we now pass the baton to our colleagues in the other place. I was pleased to see that the Senate Community Affairs Legislation Committee did recommend that this bill be passed. Their support gives me faith that the Senate will do the right thing and support its passage when the time comes.

Vapes were sold to the Australian community as therapeutic goods that would aid those seeking to quit cigarette smoking, and so it is entirely appropriate to regulate them as therapeutic goods, through controls that simultaneously ensure legitimate access for patients and provide sound public protection, particularly for our children. We must act now to stop the importation, manufacture, supply and advertisement of recreational vapes in Australia, vapes that are not being used for legitimate therapeutic use, to prevent a whole new generation of Australians with nicotine dependence. This bill will provide comprehensive and effective deterrence measures.

It will come as no surprise to those opposite that the government will not be supporting the second reading amendment moved by the member for Cowper. I don't need to hold the House too long in my explanation for that, except to acknowledge that the former Minister for Health and Aged Care, the former member for Flinders, to his credit, did try—and I've acknowledged this publicly—to put in place importation controls on disposable vapes. Unfortunately, after he did that his party room took a different decision and, within a couple of weeks, forced him to revoke those regulations, as I understand it. So, when the member for Cowper moves an amendment complaining about the existing regulatory framework for vapes, I advise him and any of those who might be seeking to support his second reading amendment: have a look at the record of your own government, because that is why we are in the complete mess that is causing such alarm to Australian parents, Australian school communities and Australian health leaders.

I thank members for their contributions to the debate on this bill, and I commend it to the House.

Steve Georganas (Adelaide, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The original question was that this bill be now read a second time. To this the honourable member for Cowper has moved as an amendment that all words after 'That' be omitted with a view with substituting other words.

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The question before the House is that the amendment be agreed to.