Page 1121 - Week 04 - Tuesday, 5 April 2016
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Other Australian jurisdictions have begun to regulate personal vaporisers. As of 1 January 2015 Queensland has prohibited sale to persons under 18, use in smoke-free areas and promotion of e-cigarettes. New South Wales implemented similar legislation in 2015. The South Australian state parliamentary select committee recently released a report into e-cigarettes making 20 recommendations that included banning e-cigarettes in areas where tobacco smoking is banned, preventing the sale of e-cigarettes to people under the age of 18, and banning advertising of e-cigarettes or offering pricing specials or promotions. The government has had the benefit of the review of the effects of legislation in these jurisdictions, and this bill is an opportunity for the ACT government to stand at the forefront of national regulation on these products.
Within the ACT community regulation of e-cigarettes remains a vexed issue. The ACT government undertook community consultation on e-cigarettes in late 2014. The majority of respondents supported further regulation of personal vaporisers in the ACT with a need to regulate access to children, an area of major concern. Public support on this issue was potentially underestimated due to 50 per cent of the respondents reporting that they regularly used e-cigarettes.
The role of government remains the protection of the community until these devices can conclusively be proven to be safe to users and bystanders. The ACT has a proud history of tobacco control to minimise harms to the community. The ACT currently has the lowest smoking rate in Australia with an adult daily smoking rate of 9.9 per cent. This bill will help to protect this progress through incorporating personal vaporisers into current tobacco legislation. Madam Assistant Speaker, I commend the bill to the Assembly.
MS FITZHARRIS (Molonglo—Minister for Higher Education, Training and Research, Minister for Transport and Municipal Services and Assistant Minister for Health) (4.03), in reply: I am pleased that the Assembly is today debating the Smoke-Free Legislation Amendment Bill, and I thank colleagues in the Assembly for their support of this bill. The intent of the bill is to protect the health of the ACT community from the potential harms associated with personal vaporisers, also known, as members have noted, as electronic cigarettes, e-cigs, electronic nicotine delivery systems and alternative nicotine delivery systems, amongst other names. Passage of this bill will mark important progress in the ACT government’s commitment to protect the health of the community, particularly children under the age of 18 years.
The measures outlined in this bill are designed to regulate the sale, use and promotion of personal vaporisers in line with traditional tobacco products. An outright ban on e-cigarettes is not being pursued. The government is aware that a number of Canberrans are using e-cigarettes to support their smoking cessation attempts. Instead the bill represents a prudent and precautionary approach to prevent the widespread uptake of personal vaporisers in the community, including by non-smokers and our youth, while still allowing adults the freedom to purchase personal vaporisers from licensed tobacco sellers.
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