Wednesday, 11 September 2024

Public Accounts and Estimates Committee

Inquiry into Vaping and Tobacco Controls

Tim READ (Brunswick) (11:02): I also rise to speak on the report on the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee’s (PAEC) inquiry into vaping and tobacco controls. I should declare at the outset that I am on the board of VicHealth, which is extensively quoted in the report. As we have just heard, tobacco is the leading cause of preventable death and disease in Victoria, responsible for an estimated 4000 deaths. More importantly perhaps than the deaths are the many thousands of debilitating disease cases due to smoking in Victoria, and one example always sticks in my mind from many years ago when I was an intern in the emergency department. I met a man who smoked for decades, and his emphysema was so bad that he was too breathless to make it to the toilet on time. This really reduced the dignity and the quality of his life. It is important to remember that this is the sort of thing we are talking about on a grand scale across Victoria.

We have now got daily smoking rates down below 10 per cent of the population in Victoria, but two factors are threatening the continuing decline in smoking prevalence. The first is illicit tobacco, sometimes called chop-chop, which is becoming more common and may reverse that recent decline, which has been brought about due to rising tobacco prices, because the chop-chop is tax free and much cheaper. The other is, as we have heard, nicotine vaping, and there has been a rapid increase in the prevalence of nicotine vaping in the last couple of years, especially among teens and young adults. An important systematic review from the Australian National University estimated that vapers are three times more likely than non-vapers to become tobacco smokers. Even when this does not happen the PAEC report outlined a number of detrimental effects that can be caused by using vapes alone, including lung injuries, nicotine poisoning, memory impairment and anxiety disorders, and just last week a study from the Matilda Centre for Research in Mental Health and Substance Use found that teens with depression were twice as likely as their peers to vape. It was not clear whether the vaping was causing depression or the other way around, but evidence from other studies suggests it could be both.

There is, in Victoria, remarkably little enforcement of current tobacco laws. The only law really that is enforced at all is the minimum age of sale. There are very few fines or prosecutions. It is all left to local government, and not even all local governments participate. People cannot have failed to notice the proliferation of unregulated tobacconists, which are now the scene of a gang war, particularly again over the last couple of years. It seems as though police, local government and state agencies are all reluctant to take responsibility for enforcing existing laws.

The state must act swiftly to make up for lost time. Remember that figure of 4000 deaths? That is more than 10 deaths a day. I commend PAEC for their report, and I support their recommendations, particularly their calls for retail licensing in Victoria. More powers for police and authorised officers are also necessary and, as we have also heard recently, a single state agency to oversee it all within the Department of Justice and Community Safety. Enforcement may not eliminate vaping and chop-chop, but it will likely reduce it. I want to emphasise that there is a dynamic relationship between four factors: the price and availability of the legal product, the enforcement of whatever laws exist, consumer behaviour and the black market. Change one and the others change. Being certain can be a barrier to good policy – we need to adjust policy to match the observed behaviour.

I also want to commend the minority report by Mr Puglielli and particularly the recommendation to ban political donations from tobacco companies.

One thing we can say with some confidence is that we need a tobacco retail licensing scheme in Victoria. The Cancer Council Victoria has been calling for it for 20 years. Better Regulation Victoria called for it a couple of years ago. It is not just that it is embarrassing to be the only state in Australia not to have such a scheme, although I admit it does not feel great to be a national laggard, the reality is much more serious. The report makes clear that between the public health impacts of nicotine use and addiction, widespread illegal sales of nicotine to children and frequent firebombings in gangland wars – that, by the way, appear to be the only real enforcement in the current black market – the status quo is just not good enough. The government must act swiftly and watch the data and be prepared to change course. Delay means more cases of emphysema like the one I described earlier.