Matthew Canavan (Queensland, Liberal National Party) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you for that. I would imagine it was received, given it was sent a number of weeks ago, apparently. It probably was received before then, so it calls into question once again why the minister was making misleading statements. The minister's office, at least, would have known—should have known—that this gentleman faced these charges, yet they allowed—or the minister did and wasn't corrected by his office—to have put an illusion out there to the Australian people that somehow they would be prosecuted when he should have known at the time he made these comments that, in fact, there was a gentleman prosecuted for that very thing in Western Australia. This is a shocking indictment here on the government's approach. They are trying use every trick in the political book to ignore the fact that their plans are going to criminalise 1.3 million adult Australians, and they have no plan for what these people do.

I may come back to some of this gentleman's case if there is time, but I also want to move on slightly. One of the issues for this gentleman and the other 1.3 million Australians who currently vape is that their only legal alternative to continue vaping is to go to a pharmacy after 1 January, when the government bans the personal importation scheme. I'll put on the record that I'm not a vaper, I don't vape, I don't encourage people to vape and I don't think it's a good thing to do, but I'm not in the business of telling people how to run their lives. What I hear back from vapers is that very few pharmacists stock vaping products because they don't want to be in the business of selling this product. That's their choice. Even those who do have a very limited range, and they're often not fit for purpose for people and, therefore, have limited use. Can I ask the government, what percentage of pharmacists today do stock e-cigarettes under the legal arrangements, and what's the annual revenue from e-cigarettes in Australian pharmacies?