Thursday, 23 March 2023

E-cigarettes

Georgie CROZIER (Southern Metropolitan) (16:25): (148) My adjournment matter this evening is for the attention of the Minister for Health. It is on a serious matter around e-cigarettes and exposure to children. Today VicHealth were in Queen’s Hall, and they had a Future Healthy stall where they were promoting some initiatives that are going out into the Victorian community. I was very pleased to speak to a number of people – Dr Sandro Demaio, who is the CEO, and some wonderful community ambassadors. In particular I would like to mention Zahra and Khalid, the youth advocates, who have been working on campaigns in communities with young people and going into schools and looking at this very serious issue around vaping. I note that Minister Butler today told ABC News Breakfast:

At the moment, I feel we’re losing the battle. And it’s not just high school students, it’s primary school students as well. These vapes are deliberately and cynically marketed to children and teenagers.

So we have got a very big problem. I know that the former federal minister for health Greg Hunt was working with border control and the TGA and doing a huge amount of work in relation to putting regulations in place around the importing of e-cigarettes. The federal government is continuing on with that work. But what needs to happen here now at a state level is that the state government needs to take action. When I was talking to Khalid, who as I said is doing some terrific work in this area with community groups and schoolchildren, he was telling me the age of kids that are accessing these vapes and just how dangerous it is.

We cannot wait. The government needs to get on with this. This was a commitment that I took to the election last year, and I really am concerned about the impacts. VicHealth is asking the government to institute a retail licensing scheme, implement a social marketing campaign and provide extra support for children and parents to raise awareness of the harms of e-cigarettes. That is what they are asking. It is very similar to the policy that I took to the election last year. So the action I am seeking is for the minister to outline what the government’s plan is in how they are going to address this very serious and emerging health issue for schoolchildren and young people.