David Leyonhjelm (NSW, Liberal Democratic Party) Share this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Indigenous Affairs and Minister representing the Health Minister, Senator Scullion. The New Zealand government recently endorsed a Ministry of Health cabinet paper that proposed support for smokers to switch to significantly less harmful alternative products. This support involves improving smokers' access to quality vaping and smokeless tobacco products, and improving publicly available information on vaping. The cabinet paper emphasises access to vaping in particular for Maori smokers because a greater proportion of the Maori population smoke compared to the non-Maori population. Are there lessons for Australia in New Zealand's desire for Maori smokers to switch to significantly less harmful alternative products like vaping? Given the very high rates of smoking by Indigenous Australians, why would this not be relevant to Australia?