Malarndirri McCarthy (NT, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Indigenous Australians) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Senator, for your question. Search-and-seizure powers are not given under the TGA act, and this is a matter for the states and territories. Our amendments strengthen the bill and ensure individuals will not be criminalised. The government has been clear since we began undertaking our vaping reforms that we are not setting out to punish or criminalise individuals who use vapes. We have, rightly, always treated vaping as a public health issue first, and the bill and its explanatory memorandum make this clear, indicating that offence provisions are not intended to be used against individuals but rather against commercial actors.

The government's amendments to the offence provisions—which we have developed with your party, Senator Steele-John—after the application of the offence set out under proposed section 41QD of the bill. This offence will now apply to retailers in a retail setting who possess less than a commercial quantity of vaping goods, ensuring that the offence specifically targets commercial actors. Similarly, the offence set out under proposed section 41QC—possession of greater than a commercial quantity of vaping goods—now includes an exemption for individuals who hold up to five times a commercial quantity of vaping goods, provided they are for their personal use and were legally supplied.

The government has also been working closely over the past year with state and territory governments, their health departments and their police forces to carefully design an enforcement framework, which again makes clear that individuals are not to be targeted in the application of these laws.

I thank you, Senator, for raising this very important question. It goes to the core of the intention of these reforms, and I'm pleased we have been able to work together to ensure that the bill more closely reflects our intentions in this regard.