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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2023-05-18 Daily Xml
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Bills

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

Second Reading

Adjourned debate on second reading.

(Continued from 17 May 2023.)

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON (Ramsay—Minister for Tourism, Minister for Multicultural Affairs) (11:32): I thank you as I rise today to speak on the Tobacco and E-Cigarette Products (Tobacco Product Prohibitions) Amendment Bill. I would like to acknowledge the Hon. Connie Bonaros from the other place. Connie has worked passionately on this legislation and, of course, I think it is something that within both houses we are very committed to collaborating on to make sure that legislation will provide robust measures for addressing illicit tobacco use in our great state.

As people may be aware, smoking remains the leading preventable cause of death and disease in Australia. We have been internationally leading over many decades to reduce smoking prevalence, whether it be the world-leading plain packaging of cigarettes that we have, the fact that they are behind the counter, they are hidden, and the health messages on those cigarettes as well. I know that the current Minister for Health was incredibly involved in that in a former federal Labor government.

We know it is not just that; it is taxation that we have seen added to the price of cigarettes over many decades, followed by education campaigns and the banning of advertising for sporting events. The other thing, of course, is cultural change, and change around cigarettes. I know when I used to go out on the town—a few decades ago now—I would come home and I would reek of cigarettes after partying all night. The change is about not having indoor smoking and having set areas for cigarettes. These things do not happen overnight, and they continue to happen. The Quit campaign is an important part of that, the nicotine patches, for example, and the nicotine gum to support people. Governments have been doing that for some time.

Whenever we come to talk about the next amendments to this area, it is important to recognise what we have done as a nation. As a nation, we said that this is something that injures us. There was a long legal debate about the responsibility of cigarette companies and their false advertising in the past. My mum, who had terrible sinus problems, was told by her doctor that smoking menthol cigarettes would help—interesting advice given probably 50-odd years ago.

Today, we come in here looking at the next level of regulation and legislation to minimise that smoking-related harm. The area I represent, the northern area, does tend to be over-represented in some of those statistics and has poorer health outcomes, so this is not something that is important just for the state but that also recognises areas of vulnerability that experience higher rates.

Previous public health measures have had an enormous impact on reducing smoking prevalence, but there is more work to do. By amending the South Australian Tobacco and E-Cigarette Products Act 1997 this bill will:

prohibit the supply or sale of tobacco products in South Australia that do not meet the requirements of the commonwealth Tobacco Plain Packaging Act 2011, including those health warnings;

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 Excise Act 1901; and

give authorised officers under the South Australian act, including our police, extra powers and incentives to enforce the law with increased penalties and a view to addressing this illegal trade in South Australia.

In supporting this bill the government is reaffirming its commitment to reduce smoking, ensuring better health outcomes for South Australia. This is part of a broader, ambitious strategy of the Malinauskas Labor government aimed at achieving the lowest rate of smoking and e-cigarette use nationally within the next five years. This is a really important aim for us as a state.

What it requires us to do is be innovative and committed to looking at different ways to reduce this harm. It is not going to be achieved just by wishful thinking: it will take an evidence-based and targeted approach to reduce smoking and e-cigarette use. The proposed new laws ban smoking and vaping in the following outdoor areas:

within 10 metres of children's education and childcare centres;

within five metres of non-residential building entrances;

at public hospitals and health facilities, including aged-care facilities and private hospitals, and within five metres of their boundaries;

within outdoor public swimming facilities;

at major sports and events facilities;

at or within 10 metres of playing and viewing areas during organised under-18 years sporting events; and

on beaches within 50 metres of patrol flags and under and within five metres of jetties.

We are also proposing to outlaw cigarette vending machines at licensed venues and increase penalties for selling to minors, with the proposal of doubling penalties for the supply or sale of tobacco products to children. This is incredibly important, because we know that if you start smoking at a very young age—of course, legally you are not allowed to until 18—the damage done to your body at that early age has massive impacts on your ability to learn and on your ongoing health.

Further, the federal government is also initiating a range of national strategies to address e-cigarette use, which we fully endorse. SA Health will work with federal and interstate jurisdictions to strengthen the e-cigarette laws, as it has for many years. National collaboration in this space is key, as it is in many portfolios. The federal initiatives include:

banning the importation of non-prescription e-cigarettes;

regulating flavours, colours and other ingredients;

requiring pharmaceutical-like packaging;

reducing the allowed nicotine concentrations and volumes (which have been reported to be up to 50 times higher than cigarettes in some cases); and

banning disposable e-cigarettes.

I think there has been a belief that vaping is safe and that all vaping products are not addictive or contain nicotine. I think what we have seen here, when you actually take the time, in what has been an expanding area of industry—whenever there is a gap, people do fill this—is an understanding, more importantly, of what exactly it is that people are buying.

Obviously, the ability to buy on the internet has reduced some of that auditing process and I think that we have seen people get quite sick when they have been vaping things they did not actually know were in e-cigarettes. I think it is not just Australia that is dealing with this issue; it is international. There was a big move away from cigarettes, but of course with vaping you have to consider what it is you are actually doing. How regulated is it? How aware are people about what they are actually consuming?

We are also looking at funding public awareness campaigns and service enhancements to help Australians quit smoking and vaping. With this collaboration, we are going to look at banning the importation of non-prescription e-cigarettes; regulating the flavours, colours and other ingredients; and requiring pharmaceutical-like packaging.

Of course, the collaboration the state government will target will not be met with just a health-only focus. We see the insidious nature of the marketing of this product aimed at our children. We must educate and inform our kids about the dangers of e-cigarettes and vaping. As I said, I think there was this assumption that e-cigarettes are much safer than normal cigarettes and I think the reality is that that is just not true, and we need to keep informing ourselves and educating ourselves about those dangers.

Last week, the Minister for Education joined the Minister for Health and Wellbeing and the Chief Public Health Officer, Professor Nicola Spurrier, to launch the state government's campaign to curb the rising vaping among young South Australians. This new education campaign will be rolled out across South Australian schools. It aims to engage with students to help them understand the harms of vaping, as well as any supports that are available to them.

We must be proactive. We must address this issue and respond to it urgently and with the best resources. We say that prevention is better than cure. Of course, more importantly, prevention is far cheaper than cure. We know that the cost of smoking-related illness to our state health system and nationally is huge. To be able to reduce this burden on our health system by reducing the number of young people who ever take up smoking or vaping in the first place will have massive financial impacts on our health system in the future. At a more human level, it will reduce the harm and grief that smoking-related illness has on our families and communities. Educating our young people is a sensible and necessary step to achieving our goals.

As the member for Ramsay, I am interested in the data related to smoking and vaping use in the northern suburbs. Statistics show that there are still higher than average rates of smoking prevalence where I and the communities I represent live, and that is why South Australians in the northern suburbs will be part of a new Australian-first trial to offer financial incentives to quit smoking. This is a first of its kind program. It will be called the Incentive to Quit trial and it will offer incentives in the form of supermarket vouchers to smokers who reach key milestones in their journey to become smoke or vape free.

I am advised that participants can earn up to $150 in supermarket vouchers during the program based on how long they go without smoking or vaping and by accessing support services, such as Quitline. When the trial was announced, we heard the incentive was prompted by evidence that shows the effectiveness of incentive programs to support people to quit smoking. As well as this incentive, following consultation that wraps up next week there will be a significant decrease in the number of outdoor places in SA where smoking and vaping are allowed.

So, it is not just one way of how we reduce these rates; it is multiple ways. It is education, incentives and a reduction in areas where people can smoke. This continues that decades-long focus of Australian governments across states, territories and federally to make smoking less attractive. It is the taxes, it is the plain packaging, it is the hiding them away in the supermarkets and reducing that incentive. Not being allowed to smoke in your car when your children are in it was also a very pragmatic move to achieve that.

In addition to current smoke-free laws, which include outdoor dining areas, playgrounds and public transport shelters, the government's plan will result in the most comprehensive smoke-free laws in Australia. There is also a proposed ban on cigarette vending machines in licensed venues and increased penalties for selling to minors. These sensible reforms have been out for consultation, and I look forward to hearing the results of this work.

Study after study shows us the increase in rates of smoking and vaping in young people under 25. We see all sorts of attempts at getting around legislation that bans the marketing of cigarettes and nicotine products to children. I think one of the key aspects, as I have talked about, is this perception that it was safe, that it was much safer than ordinary cigarettes, but without actually having a conversation about the dangers it still held. I think something we really have to get out there in regard to messaging is why it is still not a good decision to take up vaping and e-cigarettes.

The Malinauskas government is proposing to double penalties for the sale and supply of tobacco products to children. This would increase fines from $1,200 to $2,400 and raise the maximum prosecution penalty for a first offence from $20,000 to $40,000 for a business and $5,000 to $10,000 for an individual.

Rates of smoking in our northern suburbs have been up to 10 per cent higher than in other geographical areas. Of course, as someone who lives in the northern suburbs and who cares for the health of my constituents and my community, this is something that I would like to see drop significantly. Can I say that we have seen it drop, and I know that far fewer people smoke. If you are out at a soccer game watching your kids play now, compared with 10 years ago, fewer parents are smoking than ever before, but we still have to keep that message strong. We have to identify areas where the prevalence of smoking and vaping are higher than others and understand the motivation that might support people to quit.

Can I also recognise, from the multicultural affairs context, that I am aware that individuals of some cultural groups may have experienced torture, trauma, grief and loss, making them more vulnerable to alcohol, tobacco, gambling and other drug problems. There might be other factors that make our CALD groups more susceptible, including family stresses, unemployment, language barriers, lack of awareness of programs, and limited access to programs that are culturally appropriate.

While there has been an increase between 2016 and 2019 in the proportion of people across Australia reporting never smoking, the proportion of never smokers is greater for people from CALD backgrounds. It is actually 84 per cent who have never smoked at all, compared with 60 per cent of people who speak English at home. This has been the case since 2010.

Although there are some individuals who will find themselves at higher risk due to impacts of trauma on their mental health, when we analyse this people from CALD communities continue to be less likely to smoke daily than people who speak English at home. In fact, CALD communities smoked fewer cigarettes according to the statistics in 2019. Looking at current smokers, people who spoke a language other than English smoked an average of 69 cigarettes per week, compared with 91 cigarettes for people who mainly spoke English at home.

The Incentive to Quit program (I2Q), which is being piloted for users who are patients of the Northern Adelaide Local Health Network, has the services to quit. I know that there would be dedicated support for people from our diverse community, who sometimes are not as readily engaged in these programs, with the capacity to have up to 600 participants, and this is something that I look forward to having a focus on.

The strategy includes a range of programs and initiatives to drive down the prevalence of smoking in South Australians aged 15 and over to 6 per cent by 2027. It is the most ambitious target in the country. People are eligible for this program if they are accessing or participating in Northern Adelaide Local Health Network (NALHN) services to quit, are over 18 and are willing to make a genuine attempt to quit smoking or using e-cigarettes. We will also be focusing on Aboriginal health, mental health and cardiopulmonary health. If clients accessing one of these services meet the criteria, they can ask their treating NALHN health professional for further information about this pilot program.

Regardless of the focus on the northern suburbs, I encourage all South Australians who are struggling to quit to seek professional help. The primary purpose of this new program is to trial new and innovative ways to incentivise quit attempts amongst marginalised and disadvantaged populations. Following the trial, a research report will be provided, summarising findings and implications for enhancements to stopping smoking and using e-cigarettes.

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. It will prohibit the supply and sale of tobacco products that have not had the required excise duty paid as per the Customs Act and Excise Act.

This bill will also give authorised officers under the South Australian act, including our police, extra powers and incentive to enforce the law, with increased penalties and a view to addressing this illegal trade in South Australia. It is probably something most of us are not so aware of, but of course we must stamp out all areas of illegal trade, whether it is e-cigarettes or traditional nicotine. People importing these cigarettes are not paying the required duties, and they do not have the required packaging; we need to address that. In supporting this bill, the government is reaffirming its commitment to reduce smoking and ensuring better health outcomes for South Australia. I support the bill.

Ms PRATT (Frome) (11:52): I also rise to speak about the Tobacco and E-Cigarette Products (Tobacco Product Prohibitions) Amendment Bill 2022. As the lead speaker for the opposition, I support this bill and its goal of enhancing the regulations surrounding the packaging, sale and supply of tobacco in South Australia. By aligning health warning requirements with commonwealth law and, of course, increasing maximum penalties and expiation fees for breaches of health warning, sale and supply offences, this bill aims to strengthen the existing regulations.

The bill follows the example of similar legislation that has been enacted already in Western Australia and New South Wales, thereby aligning state laws with commonwealth law. This will help to ensure that the same regulations are enforced across the country.

KPMG's 'Illicit tobacco in Australia 2021' full-year report, which was released in June 2022, highlights the issue of illicit tobacco in Australia and found that Australians consumed over 2,000 tonnes of illicit tobacco with an estimated excise value of over $3.4 billion. It also found that unbranded tobacco usage has increased by 36 per cent and that illicit tobacco consumption accounted for 19.3 per cent of total tobacco usage, which was an increase of 2.4 per cent.

However, despite a marked increase in this consumption of illicit tobacco, only one conviction has been made following 1,723 investigations into the illegal sale of tobacco in Australia since 2012. Existing South Australian laws do not allow for South Australian authorised officers to enforce compliance with the commonwealth laws around packaging and labelling of tobacco products and therefore require these officers to refer cases of possible noncompliance to the relevant commonwealth government enforcement authority. In response to this limitation, this bill and the amendments are proposed to regulate illicit tobacco at a state level by:

prohibiting the supply or sale of tobacco products in South Australia that do not meet the requirements of the commonwealth's Tobacco Plain Packaging Act 2011;

prohibiting the packaging and sale of tobacco products that do not contain an approved health warning; and

prohibiting the sale or supply of tobacco products that are prohibited goods or have not had the required excise duty paid as per the commonwealth Customs Act 1901 and Excise Act 1901.

This bill will give the police extra powers and incentives to enforce this law, which can only be a good thing, with increased penalties hopefully driving people out of the illegal industry of importing and selling unexcised tobacco. Of course, federal excises and taxes exist, but the nation is missing out on $3.4 billion of revenue from so-called illegal chop-chop. This is lost revenue that could be put to good use when invested back into preventative health initiatives.

As mentioned by the Hon. Connie Bonaros MLC in the other place, in a sting operation The Advertiser uncovered 14 stores across Adelaide selling chop-chop, where each of them were making over $900,000 per annum. It is a sad reality that, while the consumption of legal tobacco is decreasing, we are seeing illegal consumption going off the charts.

The government has obtained advice to determine whether there are any adjustments that should be considered to strengthen the bill's application. In accordance with that advice, the government now lodges its amendments to this bill. Those amendments will allow for future adjustments to the commonwealth legislation without the need to further amend the Tobacco and E-Cigarette Products Act 1997.

The amendments will provide further clarity in the scope of the definition of 'health warning' to strengthen that enforceability. They will also reduce overlap between some of the new offence provisions that may have the potential to undermine the enforcement and prosecution of these offences in some circumstances. Finally, they will amend the regulation-making power in section 87 of the Tobacco and E-Cigarette Products Act 1997 to reflect the proposed amendments contained in this bill.

Many questions have been asked, through the process of proposing these amendments, about the impact on enforcement officers: what tools do they have and what grounds do they have to enter these retail establishments with the intention of searching for illegal tobacco? As with many drugs that are sourced from the black market, there is no quality assurance of the hygiene or standards of production where these very dubious and questionable ingredients are sourced from, so customers take a risk every single time they consume or inhale these illegal products.

While the commonwealth is responsible for border security, biosecurity, imports, customs and excise that is paid, that only works for the tobacco that they can seize or allow into the country. Once it slips through our state lines, each state government is bound to arm their local police and health officers to search and seize with some level of protection and consistency.

The opposition supports the amendments to this bill and the measures it proposes to restrict in regard to the packaging, sale and supply of tobacco products that are not marked with labelling and health warning requirements. This bill will also increase the maximum penalties from $10,000 to $50,000, and the expiation fee from $500 to $1,250. These increases are proportionate, given the enormous profits being made in the black market for illicit tobacco.

Finally, the bill will bring South Australian legislation into line with the commonwealth's Tobacco Plain Packaging Act 2011 with respect to packaging, appearance of products and health warnings. I note the previous comments made by the member for Ramsay and also the second reading comments made by the member for Kaurna, the Minister for Health and Wellbeing, in informing the house in more detail about the government's plans to introduce legislation around e-cigarettes and vaping devices. That is to say, it looks as if, through a consultation period, the legislation will align with the federal government's current position. I think we should welcome the introduction of penalties and pressures that fall on the supply of these devices, particularly when it comes to the ready access that students have to vaping and e-cigarettes.

I would like to recognise the Hon. Connie Bonaros for identifying this opportunity to strengthen these laws in South Australia and for bringing this bill before the house. I support the motion.

Mrs PEARCE (King) (12:00): I rise to speak in support of this bill and extend acknowledgement of the efforts of the Hon. Connie Bonaros from the other place for the work she has done in this space. Having worked alongside the government, we have a bill before us that will provide measures to help address the problem of illicit tobacco use here in South Australia.

All of us in this place would be aware of the serious threat tobacco presents to the health of tens of thousands of South Australians. It is the current leading cause of preventable death and disease here in Australia. In fact, I would be incredibly surprised to meet someone who has not experienced or who has not had a loved one experience the devastating impact of disease through smoking.

Tobacco is responsible for 8.6 per cent of the total burden of disease and injury. Of the eight disease groups it contributes to, it was responsible for 39 per cent of respiratory disease, 22 per cent of cancers, 11 per cent of cardiovascular disease, 6.2 per cent of infections and 3.2 per cent of endocrine disorders. On top of all that, it is estimated to claim the lives of around 20,500 people each year.

A 2019 report by the National Drug Research Institute has estimated that the impact of both the tangible and intangible costs to our economy from smoking is around $136.9 billion annually. This is an increase from the estimated $31.5 billion in 2004-05, so while numbers of people smoking are on the decrease, the increasing costs of smoking on our economy shows us that we have more work ahead of us to further reduce its prevalence.

We know that when we address this problem for what it is, which is primarily a health issue, we make good ground and we see promising results. Whether it be plain packaging, health warnings on tobacco packets, the banning of tobacco advertising or the introduction of smoke-free environments, all these measures have in some way or another worked to disincentivise the uptake or continued use of tobacco in Australia.

Looking at the stats, we have seen the rates of smoking drop considerably throughout previous decades. In 1991, 24 per cent of the Australian population aged 14 and older were smoking daily. In 2019, nearly 30 years later, this has more than halved, to 11 per cent. While this shows that there is still some way to go to get that down even further, it also indicates that we have made great strides to get to where we are today. Fewer children are now exposed to tobacco smoke in their home, down from 31 per cent of children in 1995 to 2.1 per cent in 2019. Better yet, we have seen an increase in the proportion of adults who never take up the habit at all, rising from 49 per cent in 1991 to 63 per cent in 2019.

It is a promising future ahead, but it is not one that is going to continue with such promising trends without our ever-present attention to ways we can continue to play a supporting role in helping more people stop consuming tobacco. This bill before us will help us continue a path of much-needed changes to improve the health of people in our community. We know why it was important to reduce and then eliminate the advertising of tobacco products, and we have seen how plain packaging has helped to reduce that level of appeal for tobacco products. It also removed the ability for misleading information to be put out on the packet and makes the very successful mandatory health warnings even more effective.

This bill is one part of a bigger journey towards tobacco reduction, and it will help to enforce our effective packaging regulations and help clamp down on the scale of illicit tobacco here in South Australia. The bill will provide authorised officers under the South Australian act with the powers they need to enforce the law as well as increase the penalties to address the trade of illicit tobacco here in South Australia.

While we have seen taxes increase on tobacco to disincentivise its uptake as well as continued use, we have also seen people coming to the market to fill the gap with cheaper illicit tobacco, taking advantage of this effective tool for tobacco reduction. In 2019, the main reason that 58 per cent of smokers were trying to quit or reduce the amount they smoked was due to the increase in price. This was a significant increase from 2016, when it was the reason for 52 per cent of smokers.

As members from the other place have detailed very well, there are those who have sought to benefit by undercutting the price of legal tobacco products through the sale of illicit tobacco. With people importing sometimes thousands of packets of cigarettes, these can be sold to the public with a very lucrative profit margin, as they are paying no excise, no fees and no tax on their sale. I seek leave to continue my remarks.

Leave granted; debate adjourned.

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