Wednesday, 30 July 2025

Public Accounts and Estimates Committee

Inquiry into Vaping and Tobacco Controls

John LISTER (Werribee) (10:34): I rise today to talk about the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee inquiry into vaping and tobacco controls. I welcome the findings and recommendations of the inquiry, and I want to focus on some of the areas of concern particularly to my community in Werribee. Growing up I was part of a generation that saw the first real pushes to curb smoking. I remember the bans in pubs coming into effect and the strange gold packaging arriving as I stacked cigarettes at my newsagency job. I also remember the debate over exemptions for the top end of town, like Crown and cigar bars. Growing up in the outer suburbs, smoking was everywhere. I too have been known to sneak a dart or three, but after making a very conscious decision at university to stop, I find I reach for the old cancer sticks far less frequently.

For a time smoking was the exception amongst the young people I was teaching. In fact I was proud that the first time I caught someone smoking at the back of the oval – a once common sight at secondary schools – I was already three years into teaching. However, big ugly tobacco has found a new way to get into the lungs of the young people I was caring for: vapes. Finding 17 of the committee’s report states:

The increase in students vaping while at school has increased to such an extent that schools now spend resources on addiction education and counselling …

Not a recess or lunchtime went past without smelling watermelon from the toilets, and when I did catch kids vaping at school, some would rather be suspended than hand up their $30 or $40 piece. There is nothing more frightening than seeing a young person so dependent on nicotine, with the shakes and pale skin, that they are willing to run off and jump a fence rather than try and work with us to help them. Recommendation 3 calls for the Department of Education, in collaboration with the Department of Health, to examine the barriers schoolchildren face in accessing support for nicotine use and addiction.

I am happy to say in my last few months of teaching the resources on vaping substantially improved, with excellent materials from Quit called ‘See Through the Haze’ rolled out to my school. Some schools have even brought in nurses with backgrounds in alcohol and other drug rehabilitation, with amazing results. However, there is more that we can do, and I look forward to working with the government on further supporting our school staff and parents to help guide young people away from nicotine. When I drive into the city along the West Gate, there is a concrete plinth littered with vapes from passing trucks and cars. Have a look – it is on the right-hand side. Hundreds of the things litter the spot, and it seems to have become a gross tradition of passing puffers. Recommendation 5 in the report calls for the Victorian government to establish e‑cigarette waste disposal guidelines and regulations.

Big tobacco has tried to destroy not only our health but also our environment. We need to send a clear message to stop sending our future up in smoke or vapour or whatever noxious way they find to deliver nicotine to us. This brings me to the most insidious part of how big tobacco is affecting my working-class community. The grip that these products have on people is causing crimes and fires, and I know this firsthand, having responded to multiple tobacco shop fires with the CFA. In fact my first time operating the heavy pumper was at a shop fire in the main street of Werribee. Finding 26 reflects that:

The criminal activity associated with the illicit vaping and tobacco trade is affecting small … business owners.

This is why my community welcomes the work by the Allan Labor government to address this. Establishing a licensing scheme will make it clear who is selling legal, controlled nicotine products and who is not. It will help protect legitimate businesses like my first employer at the newsagency from getting undercut by criminal syndicates. A new tobacco regulator will be established with dedicated inspectors to hit the streets alongside Victoria Police. Inspectors will also support police with extra intelligence gathering in the fight against organised crime.

This is important not just to tackle criminal activity but also as a matter of social justice. Nicotine addiction is far more common in socially disadvantaged communities like mine. Finding 5 of the report observes that:

North‑Western Melbourne has both the highest rates of vaping in the state and amongst the highest percentage of metropolitan smokers.

This work is as much about protecting working-class communities from being exploited by criminal gangs and big tobacco companies. I commend the work by the committee, particularly the work of my electoral neighbours the member for Laverton and the member for Point Cook. The valuable thing about these statements on committee reports is that the Parliament can return to the findings and recommendations regularly as the government takes this action. This can expose new trends that may begin to have an impact; for example, how nicotine pouches are becoming increasingly consumed by young people. We need to continue to review this and adapt to the variety of ways that those who seek to do harm to our community.