Anne Ruston (SA, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Health and Aged Care) Share this | Hansard source

If the minister thinks that I was suggesting any disrepute, then, of course, I will withdraw.

The TEMPORARY CHAIR: Thank you, Senator Ruston. Please continue.

The thing that is particularly concerning is that many of these illicit products have harmful chemicals in them that would not pass muster under a legal regime. They are designed in a way that entices people, because they don't comply with plain packaging. So, unless we actually do something about enforcement—and we're not just talking about border enforcement; we have to address issues of tax avoidance, and we have to particularly address the issue of point-of-sale. This requires enforcement at all levels of government, and it requires enforcement in a coordinated way amongst various departments, because we know that there's more than one department in Canberra that is responsible for enforcement as it relates to illicit and illegal tobacco and other products, including vaping.

In line with this priority, the amendment that I have just moved, the coalition's amendment, will seek to establish a commissioner for illicit tobacco and e-cigarettes to make sure that we have a coordinated approach to how we address enforcement, to make sure that we are enforcing the development and implementation strategies that were agreed on, including the national illicit tobacco and e-cigarette strategy that was released by the government earlier this year, and to make sure that we have got strategies that are going to really address the illicit tobacco and e-cigarette market and, in doing so, develop a national framework so everybody knows what everybody else is doing.

In doing that, we can detect, deter, investigate and enforce the laws that relate to e-cigarettes.

That's what we are seeking to do, and I commend this to the chamber. It also provides, to enable with greater administration of government support, that national law enforcement is consistent. We also need to make sure our law enforcement agencies are properly supported in the implementation of the strategy. It's simply not good enough to have a strategy unless you've got a mechanism or a vehicle through which you're going to deliver it, and we seek for the commissioner to be that strategy.

Most particularly, we want to make sure reports are prepared and published on the website around issues of the prevalence and consequences of the illegal tobacco and e-cigarette trade in Australia. As we saw this morning, the government has got no idea what the illegal and illicit market is. We will be seeking for this agency to be able to gather the data to enable us to understand the magnitude and to see what are the mechanisms that are pushing people from the legal market into the illegal market—whether they are or whether they aren't. At the moment the lack of information we have means we are flying a bit blind on what the likely outcomes of this particular piece of legislation are likely to be. We believe that, until there is a comprehensive, coordinated national enforcement set of laws, strategies and framework, and a vehicle through which it can be delivered, we will continue to see the challenges we are seeing in the black market at the moment. We know the black market is getting bigger and bigger. Just about anybody who can provide you with any advice will tell you that we just haven't quantified it to this stage.

We are arguing that the biggest issue facing Australians and the biggest challenge to our health system in terms of the health outcomes of people who smoke cigarettes and vape is the lack of enforcement. I suggest to the government: if you want to retain any credibility in relation to protecting and pursuing real public health outcomes, it is absolutely imperative that you have a vehicle that is completely and utterly dedicated to and designed for addressing illicit and illegal tobacco in this country. In the absence of doing that, this particular bill is not worth the paper it's written on. I commend the amendments to the chamber.