Ged Kearney (Cooper, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Health and Aged Care) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Warringah for putting her amendments forward. The Australian government is committed to taking strong action to reduce smoking and stamp out vaping, particularly amongst young Australians. While I know that the amendments proposed by Ms Stegall are in line with this intention, they need to be carefully considered to ensure that there are no unintended consequences. The Public Health (Tobacco and Other Products) (Consequential Amendments and Transitional Provisions) Bill 2023 has been carefully designed to introduce broad bans on e-cigarette advertising and sponsorship in line with existing tobacco advertising prohibitions. The exceptions proposed in the bill are narrow in scope and are intended to ensure that the bill is in line with international and constitutional obligations and takes a balanced approach to implementation, compliance and enforcement. The exceptions in clauses 57 and 58 are not intended to allow unfettered advertising of e-cigarettes at physical premises or online. They are intended to allow the Commonwealth to regulate the appearance of such advertisements—for example, price lists—in the limited circumstances in which they are permitted to appear.

Removal of the exceptions would raise practical questions about the extent to which e-cigarettes can be marketed or sold at all. The government has committed to separately introduce new controls on e-cigarette importation, contents and packaging and is currently working to address the black market through the therapeutic goods framework and stronger border measures. Regulation of marketing of e-cigarettes is more appropriately addressed through these reforms.

The exception in clause 60 is a protection for telecommunications and online service providers who are unlikely to have direct knowledge of the publication of advertisements. It does not prevent action being taken against the person who prepares and publishes the advertisement. Removal of this exception would effectively create a proactive responsibility for telecommunications and online service providers to monitor material that is published, raising the advertising prohibition for e-cigarette advertising to a level more consistent with regulation of e-safety, which considers content such as child abuse material and terrorist related activities.

The exception in clause 63 applies only to advertising published on international flights. It does not apply to domestic flights. It's not practical to enforce an offence outside of Australia and its external territories. Unless an advertisement is broadcast on the plane while it is sitting on the tarmac, it would be very difficult to determine that an advertisement published on an international flight occurred within Australia.

The exception in clause 67 was introduced in view of taking a balanced approach to constitutional requirements. Prohibition of political donations and electoral expenditure, which amounts to an e-cigarette sponsorship, would be better addressed explicitly and through broader regulation of political donation than by addressing e-cigarettes in isolation.

Labor has clear commitments to improve transparency and accountability across our electoral system. In June the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters provided its interim report, which supports Labor's proposal for greater transparency and accountability in political donation. The JSCEM has recommended introducing real-time disclosure of political donations and lowering the disclosure threshold to $1,000. If it is supported by the parliament, voters could make their decision at the ballot box with more information about who is backing political candidates, rather than waiting for annual and election returns. The JSCEM's interim report's recommendations include that the Australian government lowers the donation disclosure threshold to $1,000 and introduces real-time disclosure of donations to political parties and candidates and that there are no legislated bans on Australian individuals and organisations that can make political donations to federal candidates and parties. Individuals and parties may choose not to accept donations, and the disclosure threshold amount that applies from 1 July 2023 is more than $16,300 and from July 2022 to June 2023 is more than $15,200. These are the broader political donation provisions that we are making that we believe would be better suited to deal with the sponsorship issue around cigarettes.

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