Legislative Council - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2024-04-11 Daily Xml

Contents

Vaping

The Hon. S.L. GAME (15:17): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before directing a question to the Attorney-General, representing the Minister for Health, regarding vaping products sold in South Australia.

Leave granted.

The Hon. S.L. GAME: Recent research suggests that 1.6 million Australian adults are now vaping. A Roy Morgan poll revealed that vaping has grown by 347 per cent over the last five years. Despite regulated vapes requiring a medical prescription, there is evidence that only 2 per cent of regulated vapes are obtained in this manner. Alarmingly, some 98 per cent are accessed via the black market. The illegal supply of nicotine vapes enables children to access this dangerous product, often with devastating health outcomes.

My question to the Attorney-General, representing the Minister for Health, is: will the government acknowledge they have gone down an expensive black hole with regard to their vaping policy, and will they now adopt the practice of every other Western country in allowing regulated vaping products to be sold in a similar manner to cigarettes in order to save lives of those smokers who want to quit smoking and in order to starve the black market plaguing our youth?

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Attorney-General, Minister for Industrial Relations and Public Sector) (15:19): I thank the honourable member for her question. I will check. I am not sure that there is a lot of uncontested evidence that making something more available when you are concerned about its usage is the usual form of public policy, but I am happy to check with the health minister on that.