Helen Polley (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Therapeutic Goods and Other Legislation Amendment (Vaping Reforms) Bill 2024. We all know that the Albanese Labor government is taking strong action to reduce smoking and stamp out vaping, particularly among young Australians, because we know that young people are being targeted by the corporations to get them hooked on vaping, just as the previous generations were hooked on tobacco. We are making the tough calls to ensure that, through strong legislation, enforcement, education and support, vaping will be eradicated in this country.

This bill builds on Australia's pioneering tobacco control reforms, including our world-first tobacco plain packaging reforms and the Public Health (Tobacco and Other Products) Act 2023, which was passed in parliament in December. Aligned with these previous reforms, the Albanese government is now introducing world-leading vape reforms to prevent serious, current and future public health problems. Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in Australia, and First Nations communities carry a much higher burden of both smoking and cancer, such that cancer is now the leading cause of disease related death for First Nations people. We know young people who vape are three times more likely to take up smoking, so is it any wonder that under-25s are the only cohort in the community currently recording an increase in smoking rates? Vaping is creating a whole new generation of nicotine dependency in our community. It poses a major threat to Australia's success in tobacco control and the Albanese government is not going to stand by and let this happen. After nine years of delay and inaction by the former government, the gains of Labor's world-leading plain packaging reforms were squandered. Australia must reclaim its position as a world leader on tobacco control. These reform measures will help protect the health of Australians while reducing the pressure on our health system, and, critically, they will help to achieve a reduction in smoking rates to five per cent or less by 2030.

Vaping is a public health scourge. The immense risk and the immense rise in vaping amongst young people are so disturbing. The latest national data is showing 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 is a public crisis amongst Australia's youth. This is why the Labor government under Anthony Albanese is taking and has taken decisive action on this issue to save the lives of young Australians now addicted to vaping. The bill addresses these concerns through strong legislation and enforcement. It represents the centrepiece of vaping reform and supplements import controls that were instituted at the border earlier this year.

The bill will ban the importation, manufacturing and supply of commercial possession of disposable, single-use vapes while preserving safe—I repeat: safe—access to vapes through pharmacy settings for smoking cessation and the management of nicotine dependency. To achieve this outcome, the bill extends the operation of the Therapeutic Goods Act to all vapes irrespective of their 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 their nicotine content. Such tactics for too long have frustrated compliance and enforcement efforts by the Therapeutic Goods Administration, Border Force authorities and the states and territories by requiring laboratory testing of the vapes before any action is taken. We are putting an end to that. These measures will help address the significant threat to public health caused by cigarettes and vaping and maintain Australia's hard-fought success in tobacco control.

Under the bill, there are significant penalties for the importation, manufacture and supply of commercial disposable, single-use, non-therapeutic vapes. These deterrence measures will aim to stamp out vaping. Consistent with the federal cooperation 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 unison with police authorities as required, particularly crucial when dealing with organised crime.

The focus of the bill is to criminalise unlawful advertising and supply and to bring the lawful supply of vapes under the expert supervision of pharmacies. Strengthening the regulation for 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 the advertisement of vapes and to take appropriate enforcement action. This is needed to protect young Australians. It is really that simple.

Under the Therapeutic Goods Act there will be offences and civil penalties for commercial possession of unlawful vapes. These offences and penalties being created are aimed at unlawful retailers and operators as well as other persons with significant quantities of vapes who deny any involvement in commercial supply. Our government is not interested in penalising vape users. Those looking to quit smoking will be able to access vapes at pharmacies even without a prescription if they are over the age of 18. This bill is about strong deterrence from illegal conduct that has the potential to harm an entire generation of future Australians. We don't want kids using vapes within our schools or outside of them. They are a killer and they set people up for a lifetime of poor health and wellbeing.

Vapes are being sold to the Australian community as a therapeutic good that will help those seeking to quit cigarette smoking, and so it is entirely appropriate to regulate them as therapeutic goods with controls that simultaneously ensure legitimate access for adults and provide sound public protection specifically for countless young Australian children. We must act now to stop the importation and the manufacturing of these vapes in our country and we must stop these illegal vapes from coming across our borders. Our future generations depend on us taking these measures to protect them and their health going forward. The Albanese government has been listening to Australian parents, Australian school communities and Australian health leaders. We want every Australian to grow up in a country that supports them to be the best and the healthiest they can be.

Unfortunately, not everyone in this place shares that same attitude. Indeed, the National Party have declared unanimously that they are going to oppose treating vapes like the deadly poison that they are. On Monday, the Australian Medical Association spoke out against the dangerous and irresponsible position taken by the Leader of the Nationals, saying that their stance 'shows a complete disregard for the health of Australians'. We have health experts, the AMA, saying:

It is incomprehensible that when confronted with these facts your party—

the National Party—

appears to want to gamble with people's—

lives. In particular, they're prepared to gamble with our children's health.

The Hon. David Littleproud MP, the Leader of the Nationals, called this bill a tax grab. He called looking out for children's health and regulating and controlling this deadly poison a cash grab. The coalition can be as cynical as they like, but all they're doing is playing into the hands of the tobacco companies. I wonder why the Nationals would be doing that! It is because they're the political party that still takes donations from the tobacco companies. Maybe that's a bit of a vested interest.

As I've said many times in this place, vaping is a scourge, and it's a scourge not just here in Australia but around the world. In Europe and in the US, vaping is a huge problem, as it is here. But Australia is leading the way once again, just as we did with reform to cigarette advertising and plain tobacco packaging. We took the lead when we were last in government and have built on that since we've come into government now. We did it for our nation and for the health and wellbeing of all Australians, and I hope that other jurisdictions around the world, which are being manipulated by organised crime and preyed upon by those who are also trying to exploit the Australian community, will see the lead that we've taken, as a Labor government, in the interests of the health and wellbeing of Australians and will follow suit.

If you care about the next generation and about the health and wellbeing of Australians, I'm urging you to vote for this legislation. Vote for this legislation because it is good for public health, it is good for young Australians and, most importantly, it's good for the entire community. I've listened to local principals, teachers and parents in my home state of Tasmania speaking openly and often, contacting me and asking that we display leadership on this. They are so concerned about the damage that is being done to young Australians. In fact, it's not just high school students that are vaping; it's happening in our primary schools. So I urge those opposite to put the health of young Australians and Australians more generally at the forefront of the decision that they make, and I urge them to support this legislation.