Joanne Ryan (Lalor, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Health and Aged Care. What action has the Albanese Labor government taken to tackle the public-health menace of vaping? Are there any other approaches to regulating tobacco and vaping that would leave Australians worse off, and how has the tobacco industry responded?

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

Thanks to my friend the member for Lalor for that question. She remembers that vaping was presented to our community and others around the world as a therapeutic device that would help hardened smokers kick the habit, but, years on, we now know that was all a lie. What big tobacco really wanted was to recruit a new generation to nicotine addiction and then to cigarettes, and the tragedy is that it has been working.

Over recent years the number of teenagers and young people in Australia vaping has absolutely exploded. They are ingesting hundreds of dangerous chemicals into their young lungs. We now know that a high school student who vapes is five times as likely to take up cigarettes. A 12-year-old who vapes, and there are a number of them, is 29 times as likely to take up cigarettes.

While the former government sat on their hands while this exploded around them, we were determined to act. Since then, we have seized millions of disposable vapes at the border, taking them out of the hands of young Australians. Vape stores have closed around the country, and we've conducted hundreds of joint operations with state governments to target those retailers who are still determined to breach the law.

But I know people are asking: what does this mean for vaping rates?

As our kids return to school, I'm pleased to report to Australia's parents, if not to this member, that we've turned the corner on vaping in this country. Last month, Sydney university reported the highest number of high-school students who have never vaped and never smoked that they'd ever seen in all of their research. Last week, a large yearly survey found that the number of young people in Australia vaping dropped by 30 per cent over the last 12 months. The number of people over 30 years old vaping has dropped by 50 per cent, and, amazingly, the number of kids suspended from school for vaping has plummeted by half.

It begs the question: why is the coalition so determined to roll back our laws and bring back the vapes? Well, at the same time we announced our determination to crack down on vaping, you wouldn't guess who emerged from the shadows and fired up their donations to the coalition again: British American Tobacco. Deirdre Chambers, what a coincidence! They have donated $360,000 over the last two years to the coalition, more than they donated in the past 18 years combined.

I'm sure the Leader of the Opposition can explain what all of this means to Australia's parents and Australia's school leavers. But I tell you this: in the meantime we'll be fighting big tobacco, not inviting them to dinner.

Richard Marles (Corio, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Defence) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I ask that further questions be placed on the Notice Paper.