Minister for Health and Aged Care - press conference - 30 January 2024

Read the transcript from Minister Butler's press conference on vaping.

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 joining us this morning. I'm delighted to be here with Assistant Commissioner Chris Waters from the Australian Border Force. A number of the hardworking ABF staff are here at their Adelaide facility to discuss the impact of the ban that we as a government introduced on 1st of January on the import of disposable vapes. Vaping was sold to the global community, including to the community here in Australia some years ago, as a therapeutic good, a therapeutic product that will help hardened smokers kick the habit. Smokers who have been smoking for decades, usually middle or older age, have tried a range of ways to quit smoking and that this would be an additional tool in the toolbox to help those hardened smokers. A few years into this experiment now, we understand that that was not really the intention of the tobacco industry at all. But what we now know is this is a product being marketed directly to children, teenagers and very young adults with one objective in mind and that is to recruit a new generation to nicotine addiction. And the tragedy of this is not only were we deceived, but that it's working. We know now that about one in four very young adults are vaping, about one in six high school students are vaping. We know that it is now the number one behavioural issue that school communities, teachers, parents groups report. We've heard stories over the last few months in the exam season of high school students in year 11 and year 12 unable to get through a high school exam without nicotine patches, such is the level of nicotine addiction we're now seeing in our youngest members of the community. 

We also know increasingly that this is what the tobacco industry wanted. It's a gateway to cigarette smoking. But we know from research that vapers are three times as likely to take up cigarette smoking as non-vapers. It’s already working, the only cohort in the Australian community where cigarette smoking rates are actually increasing is the youngest members of our community, very, very young adults aged between 18 and 24. We also increasingly know that vaping in and of itself is unhealthy. You are ingesting around 200 chemicals into your lungs, chemicals that are used for weed killer, for nail polish remover, to deice runways, these are not chemicals that should be ingested into the lungs. We've had a long discussion over the course of last year with public health groups, with police ministers, with authorities like the ABF, and importantly with my state and territory Health Minister colleagues. And from the Prime Minister and premiers down there was a strong determination to stamp out this public health menace. We are introducing some of the toughest anti-vaping laws anywhere in the world and we're determined to see them work. The first phase of those laws came into effect on the 1st of January with a ban on the import of disposable vapes. These are the vapes that you’ll see behind me that are being marketed to our kids. They are labelled and presented with colourful packaging, they have bubble gum and other attractive flavours that are particularly directed at recruiting young children and teenagers to use them. And this is the thing that we are determined to stamp out. The first phase of our anti vaping measures are to choke off that supply, to stop these disposal vapes flooding into the country which is what they've been doing over recent years and ending up in the hands of our children. 

I'm delighted to say that just in the first four weeks of that ban, ABF has been able to seize a quarter of a million disposable vapes. This is quarter a million disposable vapes that will not end up in the hands of our children. And importantly it's also choking off a market that is increasingly controlled by organised crime, by outlaw motorcycle gangs and other organised criminal gangs. This is effectively a market that acts as an ATM, organised criminals to fund their other criminal activities like drug trafficking, sex trafficking, and more. And we're equally determined to choke off that source of funding to those criminal gangs for those criminal activities. We know there's much more to do. From the 1st of March further import bans will take effect that will further choke off the supply of vapes into Australia, and over the next session of parliament which commences on Monday, I'll be introducing laws into the parliament, which I want to see supported by all parliamentarians, that will also outlaw the sale and the supply of vapes other than by prescription, through a pharmacist and impose penalties on vape stores, convenience stores and other commercial entities that are involved in the sale and supply of vapes, particularly to our children. 

I'll hand over to Assistant Commissioner Waters, can I say first of all, though, how grateful I am to the efforts of ABF, they have worked very cooperatively particularly through their Minister, Clare O'Neil, and with health authorities to ensure that this public health menace is able to be stamped out as far as possible, that they’re able to step up with increased resources and undertake the sorts of activities that we've seen in just the first four weeks, as I said, a quarter of a million vapes taken off our streets – a quarter of a million vapes that don’t end up in the hands of our young children. 

AUSTRALIAN BORDER FORCE ASSISTANT COMMISSIONER, CHRIS WATERS: Thanks very much, Minister. My name is Chris Waters. I'm the Assistant Commissioner for the Australian Border Force, and I look after South Australia and Western Australia. Over the last week the Australian Border Force has detected and seized more than 13 tonnes of vaping products in South Australia. This is the largest detection since January 1 under the new legislation. These vapes had an estimated street value of $4.5 million. In a positive step, we're seeing increased voluntary compliance at our airports as people now are restricted to the amount of single use vapes they can bring in on their persons, and it's pleasing to see a number of passengers returning and now surrendering their single use vapes in the surrender bins at all our international airports. 

I can confirm since the 1st of January the Australian Border Force has seized nearly a quarter of a million disposable vapes with a combined estimated street value of $7.4 million. Now that disposable vapes are a prohibited import, we have the ability to detect, seize and destroy those vapes. But the role of the Australian Border Force complements the commitment across Commonwealth, state and territory partners to tackle this issue. Today we'll see the inaugural Vape Working Group co-chaired by Commissioner at the Australian Border Force and the Secretary of the New South Wales Department of Health who will meet together to help combat and organise our operational response. 

JOURNALIST: Can you run us through where these are from?

ASSISTANT COMMISSIONER WATERS: So these were originally imported from China. They were initially originally sent to Melbourne and then moved up here into Adelaide.

JOURNALIST: And where do you think they were going from here? Is this an importer who was supplying a number of stores or were they supplying the rest of the country?

ASSISTANT COMMISSIONER WATERS: So investigations is still continuing, but we don't think South Australia was the sole intended location for these folks.

JOURNALIST: And how were they detected?

ASSISTANT COMMISSIONER WATERS: It’s a very big shipment, one of 10 tonne and one of three tonne. Obviously we found the first 10 tonne and then investigations revealed the additional three tonne. Our officers know the trade system better than anyone else in Australia, and arguably we’re one of the best in the world. We've got a variety of techniques and processes and officer intuition to help us discover these prohibited imports.

JOURNALIST: Was there any attempt to hide what this product was? 

ASSISTANT COMMISSIONER WATERS: Investigations is still continuing. But it's suffice to say that we've used some techniques and our systems to identify this consignment. I don't really want to go into too much detail on how we found them.

JOURNALIST: How much do you think is going undetected? 

ASSISTANT COMMISSIONER WATERS: Since the 1st of January we have seized more than nearly a quarter of a million disposable vapes. We've seen a significant decrease in the importation since the 1st of January as industry has adapted to those changes. It's difficult to know what the market is, but I think a quarter of a million is a pretty good start for the first 30 days of this new legislation.

JOURNALIST: So does it seem like this distributor in Adelaide could be a major player in the industry?

ASSISTANT COMMISSIONER WATERS: As I said investigations are still continuing in relation to the connections.

JOURNALIST: What happens to these vapes?

ASSISTANT COMMISSIONER WATERS: Obviously, the disposal of vapes is a complicated issue. It has lithium batteries, it's got harmful chemicals, it's got glass, it's got plastics. We're approaching the market at the moment to work out a safe way of disposing these vapes. But it really does highlight that vapes are both dangerous for the individual, but they're also really bad for the environment.

JOURNALIST: Has anyone been charged?

ASSISTANT COMMISSIONER WATERS: No charges as yet but investigations are still continuing.

JOURNALIST: Do you know, have you identified a suspect? 

ASSISTANT COMMISSIONER WATERS: We are in several lines of inquiry, so we'll let you know we do charge people.

JOURNALIST: Can we talk about the second phase? 

MINISTER BUTLER: From the start from the 1st of January, it became illegal to import disposable vapes. These are the single use vapes that are particularly marketed towards our children and teenagers and very young adults. So that is what we're talking about today. From the 1st of March, it will only be possible to import vapes with a permit from the Office of Drug Control and those vapes will need to comply with new standards that are put in place by the Therapeutic Goods Administration. So they, for example, will require that the vapes the pharmaceutically packaged, so plain packaging, not for sort of bright colours that are targeted and marketed towards kids, they will need to be plain flavoured, not some of the flavours we see behind us like blueberry, watermelon, mango ice and strawberry mango. They need to be plain flavoured because this is a therapeutic product. They'll need to be prescribed nicotine levels, rather than the wide range of nicotine levels we find when we test these disposable vapes in laboratories, that are leading to very significant levels of nicotine poisoning among young Australians, and various other conditions around the chemical concentration as well. So this is really designed to make sure to the extent there is a therapeutic pathway, or a therapeutic use for vapes on prescription from your doctor or your nurse practitioner, or your pharmacist, that the vapes are actually a proper therapeutic product. That comes into effect on the 1st of March.

Over the coming session of Parliament which as I said, commences next week. I will also introduce laws to the parliament that will make it illegal to sell or supply vapes other than through that therapeutic pathway, that is a vape on prescription from doctors. Currently there is a mishmash of laws and a range of different loopholes that allow vape stores to open up often down the road from your local school because they know that is their target market. We are determined to shut that market down. And what we've decided after working with state and territory governments is that we can pass a single law through the Commonwealth Parliament that is then enforced by state and territory health and policing authorities, we don’t, as our advice first suggested that we might have to pass laws through every single parliament in the country, which obviously would have taken a substantial period of time, we're going to pass one law through the Commonwealth Parliament. I really hope we get the support of the opposition for those laws, because we want to see a strong national commitment to stamp out this public health menace. 

JOURNALIST: It seems these laws are more stringent than they are for the sale of cigarettes. Why are you being so heavy handed when it comes to vapes but cigarettes is still readily available?

MINISTER BUTLER: I think if we could go back in time 100 years as cigarette smoking was emerging as a social trend, one that became very deeply rooted not just in Australia, but across the world, we may be taking the sort of action that we are taking now in relation to vapes. I think after working very closely with public health authorities, my state and territory colleagues, we considered the calls, frankly, from various players, usually motivated by the tobacco industry, that suggest we should just regulate this emerging market, raise the white flag and accept that it's now part of Australian society in the same way that cigarette smoking has been for a long time. We rejected those calls because we know what the purpose of this market is, it is to recruit a new generation to nicotine and through that, see the move from vapes into cigarette smoking. Our country and countries across the world have worked so hard over about 50 years now to drive down those rates of cigarette smoking. And we've been very successful here in Australia in doing that, we have one of the lowest rates of cigarette smoking in the world. But we're going to see all of that progress lost if we let this emerging market targeted, and essentially defeating those efforts, recruiting a new generation to nicotine addiction. And we're just determined not to do that.

JOURNALIST: Can you run us through campaigns that are underway? I know there's one in New South Wales planned.

MINISTER BUTLER: We're obviously determined to make sure that there's good information provided to potential vapers, including young people. I know that there's been a number of campaigns run by state and territory governments including here in South Australia and I congratulate Chris Picton and his colleagues for doing that in South Australia. There was substantial money in last year's Budget, the May Budget of about $60 million for new tobacco and vaping public health information campaigns, the first time there's been a substantial campaign in tobacco and vaping for many years. I'll have more to say about the first phase of that campaign in the coming days. We want to see the first phase of that campaign rollout as kids return to school and are again subject to some of those clear pressures that sort of obviously emerged around vaping - school toilets and all those sorts of things, and I've more to say about that in coming days. As well we’ve expanded the resources to the tune of about $30 million for support services, some of those traditional services like Quitline and the various apps that that help people get off nicotine, traditionally through cigarettes but more recently through vapes, and that will be rolling out as well.

JOURNALIST: In regard to the penalty for whoever is caught. What sort of penalties are on the table?

MINISTER BUTLER: Obviously, we're considering the level of offenses and penalties for the sale and supply of these things. There’s been a level of frustration I think we should admit over recent years as this market has exploded and it genuinely has exploded. But there's been so many loopholes in the system. These things have been able to flood in through our borders because there hasn't been the sort of import control that we introduced on the 1st of January, I'll say again, to his credit, my predecessor Greg Hunt, as the Coalition Health Minister tried to introduce this sort of import control, but was rolled by his own party rep within a couple of weeks, such was the sort of lobbying was happening in Parliament House at that time. So there has been this loophole, but also there are loopholes on the ground with vape stores, with convenience stores with tobacconists being able to sell these things without being able to disclose or without being required to disclose whether or not they include nicotine. So our determination is to shut the market down entirely. And when we released the exposure draft - that legislation - there'll be the ability of people to comment on the offenses and the penalties that will be included in those laws for the sale and supply of these things.

ASSISTANT COMMISSIONER WATERS: Obviously, it's now a prohibited import since the 1st of January, so penalties could include anywhere from refined to imprisonment, depending on the nature and the severity of the offense. 

JOURNALIST: So for this seizure, though, what would somebody be looking at?

ASSISTANT COMMISSIONER WATERS: So because investigations are still continuing, we can't really comment on what the outcomes might be. 

JOURNALIST: What's the level of fines that that they could face?

ASSISTANT COMMISSIONER WATERS: It again depends on the severity.

JOURNALIST: Is there a strong message that you can send to those wanting to import vapes? 

ASSISTANT COMMISSIONER WATERS: Well, it's no longer possible. So I think industry has heard us loud and clear that it's no longer possible to import by any means by mail or by air cargo. And that there's a strict limit in relation to people returning from overseas, you can have two on your person and the rest is prohibited. So my advice to the travellers returning home is to put those extras in the surrender bins like we have for tobacco, so you’re not getting them seized by our officers, and potentially facing a fine.

MINISTER BUTLER: Not only is the import of vaping now illegal, it's also the wrong thing to do. And this market is trying to recruit a new generation to nicotine putting these vapes into the hands of the youngest Australians and that's also funding the criminal activities of organised crime gangs, drug trafficking, sex trafficking and the like.. So I just appeal to businesses and other commercial entities that have become involved in this market: find another way to make money, this is just the wrong thing to do, as well as now being illegal.

JOURNALIST: Minister, in regards to the tax cut changes, what has been the reaction in your electorate to that backflip? And do you expect the Coalition to support the policy? 

MINISTER BUTLER: I very much hope that the opposition will support this because they should know as much as we do that middle Australia is doing tough, cost of living pressures, particularly for low and middle income Australians have become very, very tough as we're here in Australia, as other countries have, have had to deal with this global inflation shock. So we think we've got the balance right here. This is not an easy decision that we've taken, but it's the right decision by the Prime Minister and I urge the opposition to consider putting people before politics. As to the reaction here in my community, It's only obviously been some days but people anecdotally have been coming up to me and saying this is the right thing to do. Now that we've that we've heard the pressure that middle Australia and lower and lower middle income households are facing and that we've responded.

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