Wednesday, 17 June 2026

 Brad BATTIN (Berwick) (10:59): I rise to speak on the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee (PAEC) report into tobacco and vape controls here in Victoria from August 2024. We have all seen that the vaping and tobacco industry here in our state has expanded at such a rapid rate. Many of us would have walked down the street behind someone who is having a vape, and I do not know about you, but I think it is disgusting when I walk behind them. All I can think is that that horrible stuff has been in their lungs and it is going into mine as I am walking behind them. It is an area that we know is impacting health across the state. It is impacting the health of young people and it is impacting the health of older people, and it is the concern about what is in some of these vapes that is a massive issue for many people when we are talking about it.

I am going to hit on two sides of it. The first one I am going to go to is some of the issues that it has raised particularly around crime here in our state and some of the things that tobacco and vapes are linked to in different crimes across Victoria. We have already seen the issue with the extortion. We have seen firearm-related incidents across the whole state; these are not just in one area. We have seen over 100 arson attacks on tobacco places, sometimes legitimate, sometimes not legitimate, but obviously you can see there is a very clear message to try and get more and more people to push across to the illegal tobacco that is available in the state.

One of the biggest concerns is around the vulnerable youth who end up involved in these crimes, and it is something that we desperately need to address. The way to address that would be putting more police on the beat for a preventative model. What we have seen is, because of the lack of action on this for such a long period of time, the actions of these young offenders, the actions of the extortion, are bleeding across to new industries like the alcohol industry, particularly nightclubs across Victoria. It generally makes people feel less safe. We know it is not new what is happening here. We have seen this in the past. Some may remember we used to have arson attacks on panelbeaters when panelbeating could be involved with illegal operations that were happening there. What changed that was stricter regulations, more policing and higher penalties to ensure that we could move that away from there. But it has now become what we are seeing here in Victoria with alcohol, tobacco and with the vapes.

One of the other issues is the number of people who are using vapes. Going by this report, the higher percentage are those in lower socio-economic areas. It is something that is a cheap thing to buy, particularly the cheap tobacco. As I said, I was a smoker, so it is up to you; I am a big believer in freedom of choice. But the reality we have got now is tobacco and cigarettes have become so expensive. That is what has opened up the market for the black market. When we do that and we go to the black market, the government does not see any return on that. They see no income come back from it. That is a huge problem, because with tobacco and vapes that are not regulated, other than the very small amount of regulation through vapes for people who are giving up cigarettes through pharmacy, and most on the street being sold illegally the government is not getting any return on that in GST. Yet what we are seeing is an increase in people that are using our health services across the state because of the impacts of these cigarettes and the vapes. That is going to put pressure on any government. I got a bit frustrated when I saw recently a federal MP came out and state that the reason the tobacco excise was not taking as much was less people were smoking. The reality is more people are smoking here in Victoria.

I just want to put onto the record some things for those people that want to get the vape out and have a go, and there are a few people in here I have seen walking around with vapes. I want you to have a think about this. The chemicals that are found in those vapes, the other places they are found in Victoria are in the exhaust fumes of a car and in weedkiller. They are found in gasoline. They are found in bleach. They are found in hospital-grade disinfectant, aviation fuel, paint stripper, preservatives in morgues – which might actually help you on your way through when you are smoking them – and they are found in rat poison.

People are doing this because of the lack of regulation, but what we will see is the increase in people who will be presenting to hospitals is going to put increased pressure on the hospitals. This report highlights it. It highlights it from an economic point of view. If we do not do something about this to get on top of it and to regulate the system and also get on top of what is happening with the illegal sale of tobacco here in Victoria, the people that are going to pay the most for this are all Victorians who want to access our healthcare network, because it will be tied up and they will not be getting the income back from the legal sale of cigarettes across Victoria and Australia.