Tony Sheldon (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Big tobacco is moulding the minds of our children, one puff at a time. Disposable vapes are brightly coloured, they are bubblegum flavoured and they are deliberately sold within walking distance of our schools. Steve Robson, President of the Australian Medical Association, has called vaping 'one of the greatest public health challenges'. The Australian Parents Council has warned:

Our children are being used as guinea pigs—guinea pigs to test what vaping might do to them in the future.

The Albanese government is backing these organisations in taking strong action to stamp out vaping through stronger legislation, enforcement, education and support. There is strong and consistent evidence that young Australians who vape are around three times more likely to take up tobacco smoking compared to young Australians who have never vaped. The latest national data, from 2022-23, showed one in six high school students recently vaped—a fourfold increase since the previous survey in 2017.

When I was the deputy chair of a Senate inquiry into tobacco harm reduction back in 2020, I heard about the companies that profit from the death and disease of their customers. The perverse business model of tobacco companies means that politicians must always be alert to their efforts to ease restrictions on tobacco and nicotine. This is why Australia is a signatory to the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. The convention requires public figures to:

… be alert to any efforts by the tobacco industry to undermine or subvert tobacco control efforts …

We hoped that there would be bipartisan support for our efforts to crack down on vaping, and I welcome the constructive engagement with the crossbench and the Greens. But recent reporting in the Guardian and the Age have outed the companies that are trying to influence Australia's vaping policy, often through third-party fronts. For example, one of the groups that are supporting vaping is the Australian Lottery and Newsagents Association, whose corporate members include British American Tobacco, Imperial Tobacco and Philip Morris. The minister, Mark Butler, has said that the only groups who want to regulate and sell vaping products are those who profit once kids get hooked on nicotine: big tobacco and tobacco retailers. That list also includes the National Party of Australia, who, themselves, are desperately hooked on donations from big tobacco. Philip Morris has donated tens of thousands of dollars to the National Party since 2019. British American Tobacco has also made significant donations to the National Party in the last year. In exchange, they got a membership to the National Policy Forum, which allowed them to:

… engage proactively on solutions to combat the rapidly growing unregulated nicotine market.

Clearly, tobacco thinks it's a great return on investment to be filling the party coffers of the Nationals.

The Public Health Association of Australia, the peak body for public health, have said the Nationals' 'views on vaping are worse than irrelevant' and their proposal is:

… likely to be influenced by the industry which seeks to continue to profit from ill health and nicotine addiction …

This week, the Australian Medical Association has said:

Mr Littleproud and the Nationals need to put the health of our children first and say 'no' to toxic vapes; 'no' to harming the health of Australian children; and 'no' to the shameful tactics of Big Tobacco.

There's an opportunity for the Nationals tonight, including all those opposite, to turn their backs on big tobacco and their donors and put their arms around their kids and look after their health.

In contrast, the government's approach to vapes aligns with leading public health organisations in Australia, including the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners, the Cancer Council, the National Health and Medical Research Council and all state and territory health departments.

I note that therapeutic vapes will be available in pharmacies for those who need to quit smoking. There is no doubt that quitting smoking is difficult. It can take years and many attempts. Therapeutic vapes can play a role in supporting people to manage nicotine addiction, but the government's approach will prevent unregulated access among young people. We put in place regulations to choke off the supply of vapes from overseas, and since 1 January the Australian Border Force has seized almost two million disposable vapes. The changes in the regulations that have been proposed in this law will make that process even clearer and more possible.

In April this year, the minister brought all the state and territory health ministers together for a coordinated approach to protect young Australians. The legislation that is now before the Senate will ban the under-the-counter sale and supply of vapes. It has only ever been Labor governments that have taken the strong, principled action needed to implement tobacco control, and it's only our government that will deliver the next step in vaping.