TRANSCRIPT
SKY NEWS WITH LAURA JAYES
16 June 2025
Topics: Labor’s failed vaping approach, illicit vaping and tobacco black market
E&OE…………………………………
LAURA JAYES: Joining me live now is the Shadow Health Minister, Anne Ruston. Anne, this information that the Daily Telegraph was able to get under Freedom of Information laws is that about one in 1,700 vapes are actually being bought through the pharmacy. What's the solution here?
ANNE RUSTON: Well, quite clearly, the policy that the Government's put in place is not working. I mean, the really sad reality of all this is that we told the Government when they put this policy forward that it wasn't going to work. Because, unfortunately, we have got amazingly organised, organised crime syndicates out there that are bringing these vapes into the country and they're predating on the children of Australia particularly and making sure that they're accessible. The Government knew right from the get go that the prescription-only model wasn't working, but instead of actually working to come up with a solution and have the enforcement that needed to go with it, they doubled down on that policy and went to a completely un-consulted policy that said that you can only buy a vape by going to the pharmacy. Well, the pharmacy didn't want to do that and, lo and behold 18 months later, quite clearly it's not working. But the real tragedy of all this is the fact that we have seen young Australians particularly forced into the hands of organised crime to access vapes and organised crime is benefiting from the failure of this government's policy.
LAURA JAYES: So, what is the solution here then Anne? Do you take an approach like we did with cigarettes and that is to make them available where people are getting them anyway but tax them and regulate them?
ANNE RUSTON: I think the first thing we have to do is decide what we're actually trying to achieve here. And I believe the most important thing that we should be doing is putting in place whatever it takes to stop Australian children getting access to vapes. The first thing that the Minister said after he put this un-consulted policy into the marketplace 18 months ago was to say he wasn't even going to use the state police forces to enforce it. So, there has been really very little done when it comes to enforcement. We also said to them at the time that they needed to have, and they agreed to have, an Illicit Tobacco and Vaping Commissioner. Today, we sit here 18 months later and we still don't have a permanent Commissioner in place. I mean, the Government has got to be serious. If you want to be serious about stopping children getting access to vapes, you've got to be serious about enforcement, and unfortunately that is not what we've seen.
LAURA JAYES: Okay, but you took a vape policy to the election that really wasn't spoken about for much longer than a day. Is that still your policy or do you need to change tack as well?
ANNE RUSTON: Well, we've made it very clear that all policies that we took to the election - that we are intending to look at and make sure that they are fit for purpose for what is modern Australia right now. But the one thing that I can absolutely assure your viewers is fundamental to any policy or any approach that we take into the future, we'll be making sure that Australia's children are protected against the black market and that we clamp down on an illicit black market which is being run by organised crime. Because right now, we are seeing organised crime profiting from what is going on. So I think first and foremost, we need to be serious about enforcement, but we also need to make sure that stopping our children getting access to vapes is the number one priority in whatever approach we take to this.
LAURA JAYES: Okay, but they're not being stopped really at all. There's not a barrier much at all at the moment. Are you reluctant to talk about this, you know, regulation and taxing of vapes? Because we have seen, I think, what happens when you over tax something, like tobacco. Isn't that a product of what we have seen in the last budget? I think it was a $6 billion drop in revenue for the Government on tobacco excise because there is such a thriving black market. I mean, that has just gone way too far, and it's not being policed.
ANNE RUSTON: Well look, as I said, the most important thing and the first priority is keeping vapes out of the hands of children and making sure that whatever policy or approach that we take to that is actually delivering that outcome. I don't think anything should be off the table as long as we are delivering that absolute outcome. I'm firmly of the belief that putting legislation through the Parliament is when the hard work starts, not when it finishes. I mean, we've seen this government on so many policy areas put the legislation through the Parliament and then you know, go 'job's done'. Well, that's not the case. But we also need to make sure that you consult on these policies. The biggest issue we had, and everybody had, was this last-minute decision to go to what they refer to as the S3 model, which is the pharmacy-only access model for vapes. Nobody ever bothered to talk to the pharmacists. It was a knee-jerk reaction by the Labor Party to get some sort of dirty deal with the Greens. The pharmacists don't want to do it, and lo and behold, it's failing. We need to consult with everybody, and that includes parents, that includes schools, that includes young people, it includes the pharmacist and everybody who is involved in this sector to make sure that we come up with a broad approach that actually delivers the outcome that we want, not these dirty deals that are done behind closed doors. Nobody knows what the deal was done with the Greens in order to get them to agree to this particular policy, but sadly Australia's children are the ones who are now the victims of this failed policy.
LAURA JAYES: Yep, and there's millions of these vapes that are now accessible, so those consultations, as you say, need to happen sooner rather than later. Anne Ruston, thanks so much. We'll speak to you again.
ENDS
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