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

I rise this evening to discuss the work the Albanese Labor government is doing to tackle the scourge of tobacco products. Today we've been debating a groundbreaking piece of legislation that will usher in a new era of tobacco control and legislation against emerging threats posed by vaping and e-cigarette products. I know I can't speak any further on that particular piece of legislation, but I want to touch on the fact in my home state of Tasmania we suffer from poorer health outcomes when compared to the rest of the country. In fact, we have much higher than average rates of tobacco use. With already high rates of cardiovascular disease and severe cancers in Tasmania, the added impact of tobacco addiction has entailed widespread misery for Tasmanian smokers and their loved ones—and let's not even talk about the cost to the health system in Tasmania.

Across Australia more broadly, the flow-on effects of tobacco use on individuals are costing Australians more than $100 million per year. I want to assure people in this place and people listening elsewhere that people can always depend on Labor to put health first as a priority—reducing deaths and remaining unafraid to stand up against special interests. After all, it was a Labor government, with former minister Nicola Roxon, who changed the face of tobacco advertising in this country, which has gone a long way to reduce—and it has been somewhat successful, I might say—the number of people using tobacco products. You can always rely on Labor to put health and public interests before its own. It was over a decade ago that we started using the issue around tobacco to raise awareness of the health implications on Australians, and we will continue to do that. Tonight I acknowledge the Hon. Mark Butler, the Minister for Health and Aged Care, and what he's been doing since coming back into government in this portfolio.

There are far-reaching issues even beyond health when you look at illegal tobacco this country. Some of the contributions tonight by those opposite talking about the actual piece of legislation have bewildered me. It bewilders me, quite frankly, that anyone would want to surrender to vaping in this country—to surrender the ground of knowing that this is another attack by the tobacco industry to get young people addicted to vaping. There is no way we will evade our responsibility to make sure we do everything we can to stop the scourge of not only tobacco but vaping in this country. It is addictive. We don't even know the full implications of the chemicals being used and the way they protract to promote to young people the flavours and the fun-loving colourful vaping that is used to get people, particularly young people, addicted.

Vaping and e-cigarettes were always about trying to get people off tobacco and to stop cigarette smoking. I think it's extraordinary, frankly, that when you talk about alcohol in this country you have to be licensed to sell that product.

We know that there are health implications of overindulging in alcohol. We all know that. You have to be licensed to sell it. I believe that we should be licensing tobacco outlets to be able to sell cigarettes and that you should only be able to use vapes and e-cigarettes under prescription. That's what we should do.

Just because it's difficult to control and stop the illegal importing of these products doesn't mean that we should surrender the ground. We can't afford to do that. We know the damage that tobacco has done to Australians throughout this country. I know that in Tasmania we have so many health issues. We should be doing everything we can to stop young people from starting smoking cigarettes or using vapes. There's never enough money in the health system to be able to cope with the demands of the implications of tobacco and cancer in this country. I urge people to consider this legislation.