Peter Georgiou (WA, Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I would like to talk about what I believe is a crooked business that has the blessing of the government and the medical profession. At the same time, it is generating billions of dollars for government coffers, and all the do-gooders are happy to turn a blind eye. I am talking about smoking in Australia, where cigarette prices are the highest in the world. A pack-a-day smoker will spend up to $10,000 a year just to sustain his addiction.

So, let me cut to the chase. For those who are not aware, electronic cigarettes, otherwise known as e-cigarettes, don't contain tobacco and don't involve the burning of any substance. Instead, e-cigarette products are fuelled with the liquid that often, but not always, contains nicotine.

A small heating element inside the device turns the liquid into vapour, which is then inhaled through a mouthpiece. There is no combustion, so there is no smoke. This is what is known as vaping, not smoking. This device is powered by a small battery.

Smoking through a device is different to lighting up, and it sure is a lot cheaper. Vaping costs around $1,500 a year, compared to the $10,000 smokers are paying for cigarettes. According to ATHRA, the Australian Tobacco Harm Reduction Association, three million people in Australia smoke; 2.4 million on a daily basis. Let's keep this number in perspective, given that our population has now hit 25 million people. From 2001 until now, the number of Aussies who smoke has fallen from 20 per cent to 12.8 per cent. In the same time frame, the level of excise duty generated from tobacco sales has increased from $4.5 billion to more than $12 billion this year, and is set to jump to $17 billion in 2029-20. However, a recent WA Department of Health survey found that the national smoking rate has not fallen from 2013 to 2016. The smoking rate in Western Australia had, in fact, flatlined for those four years.

So, how effective has the price-gouging been on the health of our fellow Australians? The number of vapers or people who use e-cigarettes is around 300,000. According to a poll conducted by the Australian Retailers Association, 61 per cent of Australians supported the legalisation of vaping and e-cigarettes. I do note that this was an online survey canvassing 1,200 adults. Last month, the CSIRO released a study confirming that e-cigarettes assisted smokers in quitting. ATHRA said that switching from smoking to e-cigarettes was likely to improve health and reduce exposure to further harmful chemicals and toxins. Moreover, the CSIRO report said:

When e-cigarettes are used by smokers instead of conventional cigarettes there is evidence for improvement in individual health …

It went on to say that the most common reason for using e-cigarettes was to quit or reduce smoking, and that smokers preferred to quit using e-cigarettes instead of other established quitting methods.

If we look overseas, we see that Canada has now legalised vaping. It is the same in the UK and New Zealand, where it has all been legalised. The UK health department says e-cigarettes could be contributing to at least 20,000 successful new quits per year, and possibly more. Of course, the opponents of this, such as the AMA, claim that vaping and e-cigarettes are a gateway to smoking for non-smokers and teenagers. Funnily enough, it was only last week that I received a letter from the AMA warning of the threat faced by society from tobacco companies and the so-called sneaky ways they were adopting to influence public policy and public opinion. I find this attitude very hypocritical. We are smoking less but we are paying way more tax. I don't hear the AMA jumping up and down about how the government of the day should be spending its tobacco generated revenue. I think the talk about vaping being a gateway for non-smokers is, at best, alarmism.

If we as a nation are genuine in our bid to help people reduce their smoking, why don't we encourage this option? The fact that the sale of liquid nicotine for e-cigarettes is banned in Australia is puzzling. Most people probably don't even know that it's illegal to buy liquid nicotine. Ironically, it's perfectly legal to import it from overseas, from countries like China, where we don't even know what we're getting. Is the government more concerned about its coffers drying up if people switch to vaping? The vaping industry actually generates $2 billion for the national economy but, for some reason, we seem more concerned about slugging smokers as much as we can to fatten up the government's coffers.

As a nation, we are more concerned about generating easy revenue to compensate for the lack of vision successive governments have been guilty of when it comes to not having a viable industry. Do we genuinely have the interests of Australians at heart and the concerted public policy to reduce tobacco harm and pave the way for a healthier way of living? Australia must come of age. Australia must move into the 21st century and give vaping a go.