Perin Davey (NSW, National Party, Shadow Minister for Water) Share this | Hansard source

I want to start by acknowledging what Senator Sheldon has said. He claimed that big tobacco is killing our children one puff at a time by selling brightly coloured, highly flavoured disposable vapes within walking distance of our schools. While he is right that those sorts of vapes are being sold within walking distance of our schools and, unfortunately, many of our children are accessing those vapes, they are not the vapes manufactured and marketed by big tobacco. They are the vapes manufactured and marketed by organised crime—organised crime and the black market—and that will not be fixed by the Therapeutic Goods and Other Legislation Amendment (Vaping Reforms) Bill 2024.

This is a bit of a confessional tonight, with all of the ex-smokers standing up. Mea culpa—I'm another one. I was a long-term smoker, but I was lucky because I gave up before vapes were on the market. I was able to kick my habit long before these lovely, fancy and pretty-smelling products were made available. I got away with it. But, like others, I now have children. I educated my children. I was able to say: 'Don't smoke; it makes you smell. It turns your teeth yellow and makes your hair lacklustre, and let's not talk about the effect on my skin. Really, I'm only 21.' Like others, I thought my children got it. In fact, my children get it. There are still enough smokers in my family. My children are like, 'Yeah, smoking stinks!' Unfortunately, vaping doesn't. Vaping doesn't stink, and, unfortunately when vaping first came out, people were saying that it was a healthier alternative to smoking. I never believed it, because all you are doing is swapping one addiction for another, as we heard from Senator Whish-Wilson. He swapped one addiction for another, and then he had to swap it for other addictions like chewing gum and sprays until he was finally able to kick it. I congratulate him, because nicotine is a very strong addiction; let me be clear about that.

Originally, vapes were the healthier alternative, and, somehow, our kids fell for that. They also fell for the claim that the fancy-smelling vapes didn't actually contain nicotine. Thanks to the hard work of CHOICE magazine, we found out that most of them actually do contain nicotine, even if they're marketed as non-nicotine vapes. Worse still, some of the other ingredients in them are even more addictive and carcinogenic than nicotine. The worst thing is that the current model does not have any form of quality control for those single-use disposable vapes. I just want to say that one thing we all agree on—everyone who has spoken—is that we do not want our children to be addicted to vapes. We can all agree on that.

The current model under which nicotine vapes are prescription only unfortunately isn't working. It was our model; we introduced it. But it's not working. But, unlike Labor, we're not doubling down. We are not going to keep kicking a dead horse. We have admitted that the current model does not work, and we have today announced a highly regulated model. But now, interestingly, as to Labor's new model—which they've just thought of in the last 24 or 48 hours with the Greens—do we really know? It's complicated, and maybe Labor just hope that it's a little too complicated for people to be able to follow. The mess that Labor are creating will drive more people onto the black market and will increase the risk to our children.

The legislation before us, with its half-baked, 11th-hour changes negotiated with the Greens—who support legalising all manner of illicit substances irrespective of health implications—won't overcome the many health, social and legal problems associated with the black market. We know that, despite the current, rather ineffective prohibition model, vaping products are still sold freely, as described by Senator Sheldon. We know children have no difficulty accessing vaping products and are quite openly using them. Walk down to any shopping centre, and you'll see teenagers happily puffing away. Link that with the incredibly fast-growing illegal tobacco market and its underworld connections, and you see how wet lettuce leaf this legislation is.

The government has gotten itself into this situation. They're trying to shut the stable door long after the horse has bolted, but this legislation will not get that horse back into the yards anytime soon. The chaos of the last 24 hours has seen Labor go from being absolutely, 100 per cent committed to a prescription-only model to having an access-at-all-pharmacies model.