Thursday, 2 May 2019

E-cigarettes

Mr LIMBRICK (South Eastern Metropolitan) (18:01): My adjournment debate item is related to the Minister for Health’s portfolio. Yesterday in this chamber my parliamentary colleague Ms Patten posed a question to the health minister in regard to legalising the vaping of nicotine to reduce smoking rates, a call which I support. Today I wish to address another aspect of vaping in Victoria, which is the current burdens that are strangling the legal business of selling e-cigarette products in the state. The 2018 policy platform for the Victorian Labor Party states that Labor will:

work to reduce regulatory approval times across jurisdictions and make it easier to comply with regulatory measures to help Victorian businesses—

and will also—

examine opportunities to lessen the load on small and medium business by reducing red-tape and levies …

Vaping stores represent a perfect opportunity to deliver on this promise. For the 10 stores fortunate enough to have been eligible to become certified specialist e-cigarette retailing premises, some issues include only being able to display one item from each product line, not being able to recommend a product, limited ability to display prices and information about products and restrictions on the amount of space where products can be displayed, which for the 10 stores that are registered as certified specialists is 4 metres square, and for everyone else it is less.

While there is certainly a need for obvious regulations like the prohibiting of sales to minors, the current measures represent unreasonable restrictions on businesses operating legally. The growing interest in vaping as a smoking alternative demonstrates the desire of smokers for a safer option. Most of the owners and staff working in these stores are ex-smokers who have expert knowledge of both the devices that they sell and, more importantly, the experiences and challenges that people might face when transitioning from smoking to vaping. For stores that are unable to register as certified, the situation becomes even more challenging. Imagine purchasing an electronic device at a specialist store where you are unable to view the products and can only receive limited advice. I have heard from some business owners that customers bypass their local stores to drive considerable distances to one of the few stores that are actually allowed to display products.

Challenges in understanding compliance persist, and with enforcement being left to local government health officials there has been a lack of guidance from both the department and local government. For the limited number of stores that are fortunate enough to be certified specialist e-cigarette retailers, they cannot move nor sell their businesses without losing this certification. One measure that would restore the ability of these businesses to function legally and compete with black market and overseas operators would be to allow for the expansion of the certified specialist e-cigarette retail premises scheme. This is my request for the health minister.