When Medicare was getting underway in the 1980s, the biggest public health challenge was tobacco: 40 per cent of men and 30 per cent of women were regular smokers.

Australia has done well on that count. Today, only around 10 per cent of Australians smoke.

The progress that we have made is thanks, in large part, to the efforts of successive Labor Health Ministers, especially Nicola Roxon who introduced our world-leading plain packaging reforms.

In November last year, on the ten-year anniversary of those laws, the Government announced its intention to build on that legacy and implement the next generation of tobacco control reforms.

But unfortunately, the gains we’ve made in tobacco could be undone by a new threat to public health.

Vaping was sold to governments and communities around the world as a therapeutic product to help long-term smokers quit. It was not sold as a recreational product - especially not one for our kids. But that is what it has become: the biggest loophole in Australian history.

1 in 6 teenagers aged 14-17 has vaped.
1 in 4 people aged 18-24 has vaped.
By contrast, only 1 in 70 people my age has vaped.

And when more than a thousand teenagers aged 15 to 17 were asked where they could get vapes, 4 out of 5 of them said they found it easy or somewhat easy to buy them in retail stores. This is a product targeted at our kids, sold alongside lollies and chocolate bars.

Vaping has become the number one behavioural issue in high schools. And it’s becoming widespread in primary schools. Over the past 12 months, Victoria’s poisons hotline has taken 50 calls about children under 4 becoming sick from ingesting or using a vape.

Vapes contain more than 200 toxic chemicals that do not belong in the lungs, some of the same chemicals you’ll find in nail polish remover and weed killer.

Just like they did with smoking, Big Tobacco has taken another addictive product, wrapped it in shiny packaging and added sweet flavours to create a new generation of nicotine addicts.

Young vapers are three times as likely to take up smoking. So is it any wonder that under 25s are the only cohort in the community currently recording an increase in smoking rates.

This must end.

To his credit, the former Health Minister Greg Hunt tried to put border controls in place, but there was a revolt in his party room and that regulation was overturned within two weeks.

Instead, the former Government created the perfect conditions for an unregulated - essentially illegal - market to flourish right before our eyes; in convenience stores, tobacconists and vape shops. Sometimes deliberately set up down the road from their target markets - schools. A so-called prescription model, with no prescribers. A ban, with no enforcement. An addictive product, with no support to quit.

Over Summer, the Therapeutic Goods Administration consulted health groups and the community about vaping and provided us with a clear roadmap.

The first thing to do is to stop the import of vapes that aren’t destined for pharmacy shelves - to be sold as a therapeutic product with the approval of a health professional.

To obtain an import permit, an importer will have to show the vapes comply with new standards and processes established by the Therapeutic Goods Administration. They will have to be imported for sale in pharmacies only.

The import of vapes for sale in retail settings will end.

These are supposed to be pharmaceutical products, so they will have to present that way - no more bubblegum flavours or pink unicorn packaging. Pharmaceutical-style packaging and devices, with plain flavours.

The Government also intends to accept the TGA’s advice and ban single-use, disposable vapes that clog landfill and are toxic to the environment.

Obviously, to make this work, we will need the assistance of State and Territory governments to close down the sale of vapes outside pharmacies - in convenience stores and the like. The Albanese Government believes that governments at State and Territory level are just as committed as it is to stamping out this public health menace with a strong national response.

We also all recognise, though, that there is still a therapeutic use for vapes in the right circumstances - to help long term smokers quit cigarettes, or perhaps now also to assist in nicotine addiction caused by vapes themselves.

But a prescription is hard to come by. Only 1 in 20 doctors are authorised to prescribe vapes to those who need it. That has to change.

It will require removing the restrictions on doctors prescribing, so all doctors can write a script for those who really need it.

Governments will also consider whether other proper therapeutic pathways should be examined to allow patients to obtain vapes through a pharmacy where they need them. Because a whole new generation of Australians will need support to quit their nicotine dependency. And they won’t be alone in their quest to kick the habit!

The 2023-24 Budget will include $30 million for support programs to help Australians quit and $63 million for a national evidence-based information campaign, with a particular emphasis on young people.

And as we stamp out the growing black market in illegal vaping, we also need to prevent young people from trading their vapes for cigarettes.

Which is why this Budget will also include measures to bring smoking rates down, protect people from taking it up, and additional support for current and former smokers to look after their health.

Tax on tobacco will be increased by 5% per year for 3 years starting September 1, because we know that a higher priced cigarette is a more unattractive cigarette.

The tax treatment of tobacco products will also be aligned, so that products like roll-your-own tobacco and manufactured sticks are taxed equally.

Together, these changes will raise an additional $3.3 billion over the coming 4 years, including $290 million of GST payments to the states and territories, helping to support our health system, and the health of current and former smokers and vapers.

More than $260m will be invested in a new national lung cancer screening program that will prevent more than 4,000 deaths from lung cancer. At risk Australians will be able to get a lung scan every two years, as recommended by the independent Medical Services Advisory Committee.

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in Australia.

We know that First Nations communities carry a much higher burden, when it comes to rates of both smoking and cancer, such that cancer is now the leading cause of disease-related death for First Nations people.

The Budget will include nearly $240m to address this inequity, with funding to ensure mainstream cancer services are culturally safe and accessible to First Nations people, as well as funding to build the capacity and capability of the Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services sector to support cancer on the ground.

The successful Tackling Indigenous Smoking (TIS) program will be extended and also widened to reduce vaping among First Nations people, as well as smoking.

Health Ministers are unanimous in their commitment to work together on vaping and tobacco control. We have all agreed to work urgently together to develop the comprehensive, coordinated suite of regulations to make this plan work.

The Federal Labor Government will not stand by and allow vaping to create another generation of nicotine addicts.