In the end, the decisions made about banning vapes in Australia could come down to the influence of working mothers.
Labor’s new laws have created a wedge inside the Coalition, and the splits run along black markets, concerned parents and Barnaby Joyce.
One Liberal senator, who will argue in favour of backing the government’s bill, told The Saturday Paper the Liberal Party risked alienating itself further with professional women voters, especially professional women parents, if it did not support the ban.
Essentially: vape use is high among teenagers and their parents would like to see them taken out of stores.
“It’s the top issue for me when it comes to community engagement generally, and professional mums are absolutely red hot on this issue,” the Liberal senator said. “If we don’t back this law, Labor will hang it around our necks.”
Supporters of the ban inside the Liberal Party include health spokeswoman Anne Ruston and education spokeswoman Sarah Henderson. New South Wales Senator Hollie Hughes, who was dumped from a winnable spot on the party’s Senate ticket last weekend, is leading Liberal opposition to the bill. Opposition Leader Peter Dutton is yet to declare his position.
“There is a growing view inside the party room to treat vapes like we treat any other tobacco product,” one influential backbencher said. “Europe is the obvious model, where you would strictly regulate the nicotine levels, ban the sale to people under 18, and only [make it available] at specially designated retail outlets.”
Polling on the issue conducted in April by political consultancy body RedBridge Group – commissioned by the Australian Association of Convenience Stores, a strong opponent of the push to outlaw retail vape sales – found 73 per cent of mothers agreed governments should do everything in their power to limit the availability of illegal vapes.
The same survey of 1379 voters found 76 per cent of Coalition voters agreed governments should do everything in their power to limit the availability of illegal vapes, as well as 70 per cent of voters located in inner and middle metropolitan areas.
For his part, the Nationals leader, David Littleproud, has already declared his party will vote against the legislation on the basis the prohibition model has already failed.
In a Senate committee report examining the bill, Nationals senators Ross Cadell and Matt Canavan made the same point about current regulations.
“With nine out of 10 vapers already bypassing the prescription model by buying potentially dangerous black-market products it’s clear that the genie is already out of the bottle on vaping,” Cadell and Canavan said. “We urge the Albanese Government to strictly regulate all vaping products under a similar framework as tobacco which has proven to work to reduce youth smoking.”
A further complication for Peter Dutton, observed one political insider, is what impact a decision to vote in favour of the bill would have on Littleproud’s leadership.
“My sense is that if the Liberals back this bill, that weakens Littleproud’s leadership and enables Barnaby to further destabilise his leadership,” the insider said, referring to former leader Barnaby Joyce. “So Dutton will have to weigh that carefully.”
The Greens are also considering the Senate inquiry report into the current legislation and are yet to announce a position.
Strongly opposed to any law that would outlaw vapes for adults is Greens Senator Jordon Steele-John, who says the Greens will instead work towards a carefully regulated scheme that focuses on public health outcomes, reducing harm and minimising the use of vaping products.
Steele-John said that based on the evidence presented at the inquiry, the Greens “will seek to propose amendments to the legislation”.
If Health Minister Mark Butler gets his way, however, by the end of next month the sale, supply and manufacture of all non-therapeutic vapes will be banned in Australia.
Under the proposed laws currently before the Senate, only vapes pre-approved by the Therapeutic Goods Administration will be available for sale, and only at pharmacies with a prescription from a doctor or nurse practitioner.
“We are serious about stamping this public health menace of recreational vaping out,” Butler said on May 8.
Butler has moved quickly to ease growing community concerns surrounding vaping after the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare’s 2022-23 national drug strategy household survey showed vaping rates among Australians aged 14 and over had nearly tripled to about 7 per cent since 2019.
Those concerns were further exacerbated by the same survey showing vaping rates among teenagers aged 14-17 had surged from 1.8 per cent to 9.7 per cent over the same period.
Building on regulatory changes made earlier this year, which banned the importation of all non-therapeutic vapes, Butler argues the new laws will bring vapes into line with their original intent as a pathway to quit smoking.
“If vapes are therapeutic goods, then it is entirely appropriate that Australia should regulate them as therapeutic goods, instead of allowing them to be sold alongside candy bars in convenience stores, often down the road from schools,” Butler told parliament in March.
Citing the highly addictive nature of nicotine contained in some vapes, and the health risks associated with inhaling many of the other chemicals contained in them, Butler repeatedly said vaping posed a major threat to population health and Australia’s success in tobacco control.
Careful to emphasise the legislation will not take away people’s ability to obtain vapes to help quit smoking, or to manage nicotine dependence if deemed clinically appropriate, Butler has built an impressive coalition of supporters.
“All the public health bodies in Australia, the Australian Medical Association, the Public Health Association of Australia, the Thoracic Society of Australia and New Zealand – every single body that represents the health of the community – we went to the health minister and said that we as a country need to deal with this,” Australian Medical Association president Steve Robson told The Saturday Paper.
“We all helped the government and the health minister shape the legislation … Because what became abundantly clear to us was that the only way we are going to be able to deal with this situation that’s absolutely exploding before our eyes, was to make sure that if you use a vape in this country, you use it under medical supervision, and that you use it, as it was initially intended, as a smoking cessation tool.”
While current laws allow retailers to sell vapes that do not contain nicotine – vapes containing nicotine are only legally available on prescription at pharmacies – authorities are virtually powerless to check whether vapes sold over the counter do contain nicotine.
According to the Australian Association of Convenience Stores, of the 1.7 million vapers in Australia, only about 70,000 use a doctor’s prescription, with most consumers purchasing vapes that contain nicotine either under the counter or online.
Underscoring the difficulty authorities face in trying to prevent the illegal importation of vapes into Australia, Australian Border Force deputy commissioner for national operations Tim Fitzgerald told the Senate this week the ABF made about 50 vape detections a day.
“As of the 21st of May, the Australian Border Force has detected over 1.6 million vapes and accessories across 7378 detections,” Fitzgerald said.
If the current legislation passes the Senate, future breaches of the law will attract penalties of up to seven years in prison and fines of up to $1.5 million. That means specialty vape shops that have proliferated in retail strips and shopping malls over the past decade will be forced to close as soon as the law takes effect.
With the Senate sitting in the last week of June and the first week of July, the Greens expect the government to force a vote on the legislation before parliament rises for the winter break.
While that may give Butler an important legislative victory in the lead-up to the next election, due about May next year, government insiders worry the new laws will result in few changes on the ground.
Those concerns were echoed in various submissions to the Senate inquiry into the proposed new law, including from the Police Federation of Australia, which urged the adoption of a comprehensive law enforcement strategy.
“We respectfully suggest that the intent of the bill will not be achieved without such a strategy,” said Police Federation of Australia chief executive Scott Weber.
This article was first published in the print edition of The Saturday Paper on
June 1, 2024 as “Vapes of wrath”.
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