Minister for Health and Aged Care - press conference - 1 July 2024

Read the transcript of Minister Butler's press conference on new world leading vaping laws; Illicit Tobacco and E-Cigarette Commissioner appointment; TGA regulation of vapes; drugs and alcohol in detention; aged care funding negotiations.

The Hon Mark Butler MP
Minister for Health and Aged Care

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MINISTER FOR HEALTH AND AGED CARE, MARK BUTLER: Thanks for coming along this morning. Minister O’Neil and I are joined here by Tony Lawler, who is Deputy Secretary of the Department of Health and Head of the Therapeutic Goods Administration and also Assistant Commissioner Erin Dale from Australian Border Force and Minister O’Neil will have a bit more to say about that very shortly. As I've said a number of times over the last week vaping is a very serious public health nemesis. It’s a tool from Big Tobacco deliberately designed to recruit a new generation to nicotine addiction. Just have to look at the type of products that are being sold, the bright colours, the cartoon characters the bubble gum flavours. And then you only have to look at where they're being sold, with nine out of 10 vape stores, deliberately locating themselves within walking distance of schools. As I’ve said, tragically, this strategy from Big Tobacco has been working. They’ve been winning, with one in six high school students vaping and one in four very young adults vaping as well. More than 12 months ago, our government announced our very strong determination to stamp out recreational vaping and to shut down the retail market in this country. And last week, I'm delighted to say that the Parliament passed laws that will implement the last stage of our reforms to reflect that determination. From today, vapes are only able to be sold legally in a therapeutic setting. They're only able to be sold in a pharmacy, after a conversation about smoking cessation or nicotine addiction with a qualified health professional. Vape stores, tobacconists, convenience stores that have been selling these things over the past several years are no longer able legally to do that. All governments, not just the Commonwealth Government, but all of the state and territory governments who have partnered with us in this reform process, all governments expect business to do the right thing and to comply with the law. Already, just on the first day of operation of these new laws, we have been contacted, and we've heard indirectly, stories of businesses doing the right thing and starting to take these products off their shelves. But I want to be crystal clear. We are deadly serious about these reforms because they are critically important to the health of young Australians. Penalties for non-compliance in these laws are very significant. As Tony Lawler from the TGA will outline shortly, the enforcement activity that we are starting this week, in partnership with state and territory health authorities, will also be substantial. So for those out there who have been selling and supplying these vapes, in vape stores or other retail settings, you need to stop. And if you don't stop, I want to assure you that you will be liable to very significant penalties with fines up to $2 million and jail time up to seven years. Now, last week's laws, the passage of those laws follow on from some really terrific, strong enforcement activity of the import control regulation that Minister O'Neil introduced on the first of January this year. And I want to thank Border Force and the TGA for their really strong implementation of that first part of our reform journey, but also for generally being able to set the path for shutting down this retail market. And I also want to thank Minister O'Neil, with her busy portfolio, for the energy that she has brought to what is what is essentially a public health reform, but one that she had partnered with the health portfolio terrifically well on. I'll hand over to Minister O’Neil now.

MINISTER FOR HOME AFFAIRS, CLARE O’NEIL: Well, thank you so much, Minister Butler. Helping Australians ditch their addiction to tobacco is one of the most important public health initiatives our country's ever undertaken. And what you've seen in the amazing history of this public health initiative as a country, is we've seen smoking rates come down and down and down, until Australia has been amongst a world leader in this amazing effort. And so it was enormously distressing over the last decade to start to see some of that incredible work unwound by tobacco companies and, in particular, the introduction of vaping. What is so terrifying for every Australian parent in our country, is the way in which these products have been deliberately targeted at children. And Minister Butler you just talked about some of this. My children, my two oldest children are seven and 11. There is a vape store just down the street from their school and I have watched my kids stand in front of that store and pick at which vape they like the look of. That is how deliberately these products are targeted at children and it is unconscionable that, for a decade, the Liberals stood back and did nothing while this took place and took some interest of young Australians. Now Minister Butler has absolutely spearheaded what is a remarkable reform of our government to try to stamp out this practice. The best time to do this was a decade ago before it took hold. The second-best time to do it is right now. And that is why you see Minister Butler be so resolute in focusing on making sure that this actually happens. Now, we've put some very important laws in place and Border Force have been very important to enforcing the initial part of this, which has been a ban on bringing vapes into our country and I want to share some of the numbers with you. Since new regulations banning the import of disposable vapes began on 1 January, the Australian Border Force, working with the Therapeutic Goods Administration, have jointly seized almost 3 million illicit vapes, almost 3 million vapes. And as Minister Butler said, we are starting to hear on the ground that this is having a really material impact on people's ability to access these products. This builds on really important and good work that our government has done so far in its term on fighting illegal tobacco.
 
About a year ago, our government announced an initiative, an investment of $188.5 million over four years, which was a really important new way of comprehensively trying to tackle the illegal tobacco industry. And in the period from 1 January 2024 to 31 May 2024, ABF officers seized more than 143 tonnes of tobacco, and 838 million cigarettes at the border.
 
Now, we need to see this focus continue, it is absolutely clear that if we are going to win this fight against vapes, we're going to need to tackle it from every angle. And that is why our government is today appointing an Illicit Tobacco and E-Cigarette Commissioner to help us bolster those efforts. So I want to introduce Assistant Commissioner Erin Dale, who is going to take up this position. Erin Dale is an Assistant Commissioner in Australian Border Force, she has incredible depth of expertise in this area. She has been on the front line of this fight for a long, long time. And in this new position, she is going to take up a new leadership role for our country in trying to make sure that these dangerous products are not used by as many Australians as possible. So I'd like to invite Erin to say a few words to you.
 
INTERIM ILLICIT TOBACCO AND E-CIGARETTE COMMISSIONER, ERIN DALE: Thank you, Minister, and I'm pleased to accept this role as the interim Illicit Tobacco and E-Cigarette Commissioner, in which is a critical time for law enforcement response to tackle this crime. As the Minister has indicated, the harm is already well-established for e-cigarettes and tobacco. While the flavours like blueberry, mango, and unicorn and also cartoon characters printed on those packages, they are deliberately targeting our children. Every day, Australian Border Force officers at our ports are detecting millions of illicit tobacco and vapes. This is a significant increase from what we have seen previously. There is a common misconception that this crime is a victimless crime. But it's far from it. The profits made by criminal syndicates actually go on to do other criminal activities like drug importation, firearms, and violence on the street. And we have seen that playing out in multiple states. So the position here is to bring together the collaborative approach that we already are undertaking across Commonwealth and states. We have to be joined up to tackle this insidious criminality, which is threatening our health.
 
My message to organised crime is: we are targeting you. At the Commonwealth and state levels, we’ve never been more joined up before. So we are targeting you - that's my message to organised crime. My message to public is: we cannot, between law enforcement and health, we cannot do this alone. We need your support, through education, through dobbing in where the cigarettes or illicit cigarettes and substances are sold, we need your support. So I'm looking forward to working across Commonwealth and state and ramping up efforts even further to support the initiative. Thank you.
 
BUTLER: Thank you, Assistant Commissioner Dale. Before I hand to the Head of the TGA, can I just remind you present here that we have been working, hand in glove, with state and territory, policing and health authorities to set up a comprehensive enforcement plan around this area. There has been an enforcement group co-chaired by Commissioner Outram, the head of ABF and also Miss Susan Pearce, who is the head of the New South Wales Department of Health. It includes representatives from all state and territory policing authorities and health authorities as well. And so there's a very clear understanding between all jurisdictions and portfolios within jurisdictions as to how we're going to make sure, on the ground, that the laws that the parliament has passed last week, are actually enforced and the TGA will play a critical role in that. So, I want to hand over for a few comments from the Head of the TGA Tony Lawler.
 
HEAD OF THERAPEUTIC GOODS ADMINISTATION, PROFESSOR TONY LAWLER: Thank you very much Minister. And as has been highlighted a number of times today, this is a response to a significant public health concern. And that response has to have many elements and it engages, not only Commonwealth, state and territory jurisdictional leads, but also across many agencies within the APS.
 
So, as Minister Butler's highlighted, there has been a significant process of collaboration for a year now between the TGA and also state and territory health officials, in terms of developing policy and understanding the full scope of the problem we're facing. But also over the last six months, there has been the development of the National Vaping Enforcement Working Group that is chaired by Commissioner Outram and Secretary Susan Pearce from the New South Wales Department of Health, but it also has representation from the Therapeutic Goods Administration, Border Force, the Australian Federal Police, and health and police representatives from all states and territories. That group has recently signed off a National Vaping Enforcement Framework. And what it really does is it highlights the fact that all members of that group are on the same page in terms of addressing the issues presented, not only to our children, but to the general community from vaping. The responsibility for compliance and enforcement obviously is split across a number of agencies. The ABF has responsibility at the border and the Therapeutic Goods Administration works with state and territory health and also police jurisdictional representatives, in order to provide compliance and enforcement in wholesale and retail supply, and also in advertisement of these products. We know that social media is a significant way in which particularly young Australians gain knowledge and attraction to these products. And so we're working with social media platforms and also internet service providers to address the availability and accessibility of such advertisements.
 
I think it's also important to note that we've been working for over a year with the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners on developing clinical guidelines for the prescribing of these goods. And we will continue as well to work with the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia to develop best practice guidelines for those pharmacists who will be dispensing these products. So I think it's really important to note that we recognise that it will require collaboration and cooperation across jurisdictions and agencies. And we'll continue to do that as we have been for the last 12 months.
 
BUTLER: Any questions?
 
JOURNALIST: Minister O’Neil, your Government has celebrated the diplomatic efforts to get Julian Assange returned home saying it's the Government's duty to stand up for Australian citizens overseas. Dozens of Australians are imprisoned in Syria, including more than 20 children. What's the Government doing to secure their release?
 
O’NEIL: The Government provides diplomatic support to individuals who are detained overseas where that's possible, in some parts of the world that is easier than it is in others.
 
JOURNALIST: SBS travelled to Syria, and they managed to find Yusuf Zahab within a day of being there, after his family in Australia was told that he was dead, he hasn't had any contact with the Consulate either at that point for several years. Are you really doing everything to get in touch and help these Australians in prison?
 
O'NEIL: So I'm not going to speak to individual case studies in this room. But I can tell you that we use diplomatic efforts to assist people who are in difficult situations all over the world, and you did say that with Julian Assange. And I just say again, that in some instances, the Australian Government is able to access people more easily and do more than in other instances.
 
JOURNALIST: On the new Commissioner that you've announced today, is there a reason why it's taken this long? Why are you putting this in place now?
 
O’NEIL: As I said, I think the best time to do this would have been many years ago, when it became abundantly clear that the tools that were put in place to manage this creeping interest of tobacco companies in trying to exploit children and get them addicted to tobacco was going to have some success. Now, we've been in Government for two years. We sat back while the Liberal’s did nothing for a decade on this problem. And I'm not sure anyone could reasonably argue that the Government could have moved any faster on this matter. Here we are two years in we've executed on a ban on the borders and Minister Butler of course has talked about the retail ban which is commencing. The initiative of appointing a Commissioner is simply an indication of how seriously our Government takes this problem. And also the way that we recognise that it needs to come from every angle. We're not going to tackle this by any one piece of what we've talked about alone. But when we put all those things together, we are going to see real success. And we've already seen success, both on the borders and in the retail context.
 
JOURNALIST: Will the TGA regulate the vaping products that pharmacists will be able to of sell what will the process be there and what sort of companies will be selling those vapes to the pharmacist?
 
BUTLER: So I might ask Tony Lawler to supplement this. Before March, vapes that were being sold in Australia came in a wide variety of shapes and forms, we often had very little line of sight about the nicotine content in those vapes. The different chemicals that were in them, these are very serious chemicals that you'll also find in nail polish remover, chemicals that are used to de-ice runways, chemicals that are used to embalm dead bodies in morgues. This is a very serious health consideration, particularly for young lungs. From March the TGA, set new standards that would very clearly prescribe the nicotine content that would be available in vapes that could be legally sold in Australia as well as a range of other standards around chemical content. So vapes that will be sold legally in a therapeutic setting, namely a pharmacy, must notify the TGA they intend to be sold in Australia, that they comply with those standards, and that they have obtained a permit to do from the Office of Drug Control.
 
JOURNALIST: Just on the enforcement strategy that you mentioned there, what is the appetite from states to enforcing the law?
 
LAWLER: So thank you. So as I previously highlighted, that there has been a significant degree of collaboration and consultation with states and territories both in the development of the quality standards that the Minister has just discussed, but also in the development of a Vaping Enforcement Framework. And we recognise that this is a challenge, it's not just faced at the Commonwealth level, this is faced at the state and territory levels. The responsibility for enforcement of tobacco legislation is predominantly a state and territory responsibility. And so clearly, the TGA seeks to work with state and territory health and police organisations in order to provide solid compliance and enforcement. As the Minister has already highlighted, today is the day that that the new restrictions come into effect. There has been a, however, a significant lead time in terms of retailers being aware that this is coming. It was early May last year that the Minister made the announcement that reforms would be enacted. And so, I don't think it can be safely said that this has come as a surprise. But one thing is absolutely clear is that the TGA is committed to working with state and territory police and health officials, not only in terms of understanding the local environment and supporting compliance enforcement efforts, but also in conducting the kind of joint efforts that we've already seen in the first half of this year that have been very successful.
 
JOURNALIST: When it comes to vapes and the TGA, no vaping products are approved by the TGA at the moment. So can you talk us through how these are controlled? How the TGA works with products that we can't guarantee are safe or safer? What are the ingredients? What's the process?
 
LAWLER: So you're correct in saying that there isn't currently a vaping product on the Australian Register of Therapeutic Goods. But there are a number of instances in which doctors and patients are able to access what we call unapproved goods through our Special Access or Authorised Prescriber schemes. So, as the Minister has previously highlighted, vapes have been represented previously as therapeutic goods and under the new legislation that's exactly how they are regulated - as therapeutic goods - which includes a number of things including the formulations in which they can be provided, the dosages, the packaging, the flavours that are allowed.
 
So, there was a process whereby an individual doctor or a pharmacist who's seeking to supply these goods can apply under one of our access schemes be that the Special Access Scheme or the Authorised Prescriber scheme. What that does is that enables that product to be provided to patients with an appropriate conversation around obviously the risks that are attended to that product. The TGA has not been approached to assess a vaping product for safety, quality, and efficacy, but we absolutely would welcome any kind of approach to undertake that assessment. I think it's also really important to note that even though these products do come through what we call the unapproved pathway, there are still quality standards that are applied. As Minister Butler's already highlighted those products cannot be brought into Australia unless the importer has a licence and a permit. But also, that there is a notification that those products do comply with our required quality standards.
 
JOURNALIST: I don't vape but I have friends that do and the sort of reports you hear back are that it's becoming harder to find vapes, they're more expensive, but if you really want to find one then you can find one. There are shops that are well known that you can go there and you'd ask what the code word or you show them that you've got a vape and they'll give you a vape. What is the enforcement activity actually look like? Is it going to be going into the stores and raiding the well-known ones? Like what does it actually look like on the ground? Because it seems like you can still find this if you want to find them.
 
BUTLER: Josh, the laws only took effect today. So up until today, there's not been a sort of activity that Tony Lawler has been talking about and our state and territory equivalents have been talking about as well. From today, I just again, want to remind businesses, it is illegal to sell vapes outside of a pharmacy setting after a conversation with a qualified health professional. There are very serious penalties in the legislation the Parliament passed last week, fines of up to $2.2 million, jail time of up to seven years, if you breach those laws. And as Tony Lawler also indicated, you've been on notice about this for more than 12 months. So, we expect businesses to comply with this, we are very deadly serious about making sure these laws work. Now, what this will require on the ground is cooperation between the TGA and state - usually - health authorities. They will be conducting operations, I'm not going to go into the details of those operations right now but they are already being discussed as part of the enforcement framework that that Dr. Lawler talked about in his remarks. It will become very quickly apparent to businesses that continue to flout these laws or mistakenly think we're not serious about enforcing them, that the penalties contained in the laws will be levied against them.
 
JOURNALIST: Just want to ask you about Operation Jet Engine that took place at Melbourne Airport, how concerned are you that airport workers with security clearance, were using that to commit criminal activity, and that is Border Force on top of this?
 
O’NEIL: Obviously, it was of concern to us, because that's why we undertook this very significant operation. The operation is actually partly still on foot so I might not provide public comment to you right now. But happy to provide some comments when we've completed it. But obviously, you've seen the reports, it's quite significant and serious.
 
JOURNALIST: On the Migration Act, that was something you tried to push through within 24 hours, it's now been several months, and it's one of the last things for this sitting period to be debated in the Senate. Is it still a priority for the Government? And do you have a pathway for that legislation to get through the Senate?
 
O’NEIL: This is an important bill. And it's an important bill to assist us with managing the integrity of the migration system. At the moment, as you probably know, we don't have sufficient powers to remove people from the country who are not meant to be here and part of the initiative in that bill was to assist us in giving the Government those powers. I think we've learned through the course of this debate that the Opposition are going to pay as much politics as they can with this bill. They haven't said that they'll support it, so we need the Liberals to come forward and tell us what their plan is for this bill. And if they're willing to support it, we can pass it through the Parliament.
 
JOURNALIST: It includes a minimum sentence, is that something that you're going to stick with in the final form?
 
O’NEIL: What's in the bill.
 
JOURNALIST: Minister, one more on Home Affairs. Michael Outram and the Human Rights Commissioner have both called for greater powers to search for drugs and alcohol in detention. Does the Government have any plans to legislate that and what sort of content are you looking into?
 
O’NEIL: We’re in constant conversation with Border Force about this matter. There's no current plans to legislate on it. But it is an issue for Border Force and it's one the Commissioner, of course has raised with me, we'll continue to work through that with the Commissioner.
 
BUTLER: You've been in negotiations with the Coalition over changes to how Australia funds aged care. What's the status of those negotiations right now?
 
BUTLER: You're right to say that and that was partly in response to an offer made by the Leader of the Opposition in one of his Budget Reply speeches. But also, I think reflects an understanding by both major parties of government that aged care reform is a serious, very sensitive topic for this Parliament to address and is best done on a bipartisan basis. That's partly because we require strong investor certainty to build the sort of capability or the supply of aged care that we need in the future, particularly given the demographic trends that are facing us over coming years but also, because these issues affect Australians that a very vulnerable part of their time of their life. So as I think is understood, we've taken up Mr. Dutton on that offer. We've had very constructive, good faith discussions with the Coalition about the future of aged care. But I don't have anything to say about that quite now. Thank you very much.
 
JOURNALIST: Student visas have doubled in price, what's the rationale behind that?
 
O’NEIL: This was part of the Government's efforts to clean up a sector that was suffering greatly from a decade of neglect under the former government. If I can just share a little bit of the overview with you. This is a really important sector for our country, education is our largest export that we don't grow or dig out of the ground. And it is something that the Albanese Government is fiercely proud of and fiercely interested in investing and defending. We faced a sector, though, when we came to government that was experiencing some really, really significant issues. One of those was that there was unsustainable growth in the number of students coming into the country. Obviously, we're having a conversation at the moment as a country about population, about 60 per cent of the surge in net overseas migration was driven by increases in international students. But it wasn't just about numbers, it was about the extent to which this sector was assisting our country with its strategic goals, the extent to which we were training students in areas of actual skills need for our country. Now, we are working really hard with the sector at the moment to put some better controls and a framework around their work. This is a very important sector for the future of our country. But the clean up job that we have had to initiate has been very substantial. Today, we have increased student visa application fees significantly. This is part of our focus on maintaining integrity in that system. What we want is to have students here for whom the primary purpose is for them to study and we welcome that. We love having these young people here from around the world, in our education system and exploring and getting to enjoy our culture. But we’ve got to make sure this works for the country and every dollar, every dollar that will be raised through this is being reinvested right back in our education sector. Thanks everyone.
 
BUTLER: Thanks everyone.

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