Tobacco and E-Cigarette Products (Tobacco Product Prohibitions) Amendment Bill

Standing Orders Suspension

The Hon. C.J. PICTON (Kaurna—Minister for Health and Wellbeing) (17:28): I seek leave to move the motion standing in my name in an amended form, to change the date from 3 May to 17 May, and other words to remain the same.

Leave granted.

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: I move:

That standing and sessional orders be and remain so far suspended as to enable the Tobacco and E-Cigarette Products (Tobacco Product Prohibitions) Amendment Bill set down on the Notice Paper as Private Members Business, Bills, Order of the Day No. 9, for Wednesday 17 May be taken into consideration as an Order of the Day, Government Business, and that the second reading be called on forthwith.

Motion carried.

Second Reading

The Hon. C.J. PICTON (Kaurna—Minister for Health and Wellbeing) (17:29): I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

I bring this legislation to the parliament following its passage in the other place. It was originally introduced by the Hon. Connie Bonaros in the last sitting week of 2022. I am happy to provide support of behalf of the government for this originally private members' legislation in the other place. I want to acknowledge Connie Bonaros for her work on this legislation and her willingness to work with the government to improve the legislative mechanisms for addressing illicit tobacco in South Australia.

Sir, as you would know, smoking remains the leading preventable cause of death and disease in Australia. We know that public health measures have had an enormous impact on smoking prevalence in South Australia and nationally. While we have seen a reduction in the rate of smoking, down to 8.2 per cent last year, the lowest on record, there is still much more to do, in terms of both tobacco and vaping.

Health warnings target messaging to the individual directly from the time of purchase and each time they open the packet for the next cigarette. The production and sale of illicit tobacco in South Australia means that this health messaging may not appear on those packets. Additionally, illicit tobacco that has somehow evaded the excise taxation scheme is often cheaper than legal tobacco, which can lead to increased consumption, undermining the downward trend in smoking prevalence and increasing smoking-related harm.

Existing South Australian laws do not allow for South Australian authorised officers to enforce compliance with the commonwealth laws around the packaging and labelling of tobacco products and therefore requires them to refer cases of possible noncompliance to the relevant commonwealth government enforcement authority.

By amending the South Australian Tobacco and E-Cigarette Products Act 1997, this bill will prohibit the supply and sale of tobacco products in South Australia that do not meet the requirements of the commonwealth's Tobacco Plain Packaging Act 2011, including health warnings, and prohibit the supply and sale of tobacco products that are prohibited goods or have not had the required excise duty paid as per the Commonwealth Customs Act 1901 and the Excise Act 1901.

The bill will give authorised officers under the South Australian act, including our police, extra powers and incentive to enforce the law with increased penalties, with a view to addressing the illegal trade in South Australia. To ensure the bill provides our authorities with the enforcement measures they need, the government sought legal advice to determine whether any adjustments were required to strengthen the bill's application. As a result of that advice, several amendments are proposed. The amendments provide for:

future adjustments to the commonwealth legislation without the need for further amendments to the act;

further clarity and scope in relation to packaging requirements, including health warnings;

greater enforceability for authorities to be able to act on these new offences; and

regulation-making clauses to prescribe further packaging requirements, set a possession quantity of illicit tobacco, which is considered to be for the purpose of sale, and ban counterfeit or copied packages.

Sir, as you will know, the government is taking a very strong approach in relation to both tobacco and e-cigarettes or vaping. We have at the moment consultation underway in relation to further changes that should be made to our legislation. In addition to that, we are now working with the commonwealth government in relation to toughening our vaping legislation both at the commonwealth level and in South Australia.

We support these changes. We think they will have a benefit in terms of having that application in South Australia, but there is a lot more that needs to be done to address both tobacco and vaping that we are working on, and I will have further legislation that we will be bringing to this house to make further changes to this legislation. I thank Connie Bonaros and all of her team who have worked on this legislation and the team in SA Health and DASSA who have provided advice in relation to this. I endorse it to the house.

Debate adjourned on motion of Mr Odenwalder.