Wednesday, 16 October 2024

Statements on tabled papers and petitions

Public Accounts and Estimates Committee

Inquiry into Vaping and Tobacco Controls

Ryan BATCHELOR (Southern Metropolitan) (17:18): I rise to make a statement on the report of the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee’s inquiry into vaping and tobacco controls, which was tabled on 29 August 2024. The PAEC report is important and confirms what we had feared – that children and young people are the most profoundly impacted by the harmful use of e-cigarette products. There was clear evidence that legislative action to combat the proliferation in the use of e-cigarettes among our young people not only was necessary but also will be life saving, and I am glad the federal government has moved on that. The inquiry showed that the use of e-cigarettes in our community has more than doubled in the past four years, with 373,000 regular and 128,000 non-regular users in Victoria. By 2022–23, 7 per cent of Australians aged 14 and over were using e-cigarettes, compared with 2.5 per cent in 2019. It was 2.5 per cent in 2019, and three years later 7 per cent – a huge increase.

What the committee’s report found was that children and young people are impacted the most by this trend. We cannot turn a blind eye to this problem anymore, and we cannot pretend we do not know the dangers of vaping. We know that vapes have over 240 different chemicals in their e-liquids, and that includes arsenic, the same that is found in rat poison; benzene, the chemical found in gasoline; and formaldehyde, which is used to preserve dead bodies in morgues. These chemicals are toxic and dangerous, and they can lead to anything from breathlessness and lung damage to many forms of cancer. The presence of nicotine in vapes is of primary concern, a highly addictive substance that can not only trap our young people into a lifelong struggle with addiction but also cause significant damage to lungs and other bodily functions from vaping-associated lung injuries and nicotine poisoning. Nicotine dependence among children is becoming a serious health and behavioural issue in our schools.

If the health consequences were not enough, the committee found that vaping costs users between $790 and $1320 a year, with the vaping and tobacco industry costing Victorian taxpayers $5 billion a year. The report also found that while it is young people who are the major users of vapes, it is only increasing. In 2019 only 5.3 per cent of e-cigarette users were aged 18 to 24. This grew to 20 per cent of e-cigarette users being 18 to 24 by 2022–23.

Vapes were developed as a Trojan Horse to get a new generation addicted to nicotine. Tobacco control across the world started in no small part here in Victoria with the passage of the groundbreaking Tobacco Act 1987. Tobacco control was working and working well. Smoking rates were falling, particularly amongst children. Big tobacco was worried, so they invented new products – vaping and e-cigarettes – and they started telling lies about them. One lie is that they are not harmful like cigarettes. The PAEC report and the evidence put lies to that. They are cocktails of harmful chemicals flavoured like bubblegum. Another lie is that they are a tool to help smoking cessation – to help the addicted quit. This is also a lie. Vapes are tools to get people addicted.

The latest evidence published just last week in a British medical journal shows that in England the number of adults who use e-cigarettes despite never regularly smoking has risen sharply to around 1 million people – a million people in England who vape but who never smoked cigarettes. Vapes are tools to get people addicted, and as always, big tobacco is targeting young people. If young people are at the heart of the problem, the work of VicHealth in prioritising young people is at the forefront of solving it. For the next two years the state government will be working with local government and VicHealth alongside sporting, education and community groups to spread the word on the harms of vaping. VicHealth’s Uncloud campaign shares peer-reviewed scientifically backed information about vapes through the perspectives of young people.

I have been a strong advocate for tough action on vaping. In my inaugural speech I singled out this issue as being an emerging health challenge that needed addressing, and I will not stop talking about the harms of vaping until our children are safe from these dangerous products. That is why the PAEC report is such an important piece of work, and I thank my colleagues.

The main recommendation from that report is that in order to address the harms from vaping we need to have a robust legislative framework to prevent harm. Australia was set to be the first country in the world to restrict the sale of vapes to those with a prescription under laws proposed by federal Labor. Sadly, those strong protections proposed were opposed by the Liberal Party and watered down by the Greens. I am incredibly disappointed that the federal Greens watered down Labor’s prescription-based approach and insisted that vapes be sold over the counter at pharmacies, just like Panadol and jelly beans. Vapes are a dangerous product, and the PAEC report shows us this.