Speaker 1: My name is Lily Maddon and I'm a proud Arunda
Speaker 1: Bungelung Calcottin woman from Gadigl Country. The Daily oz acknowledges
Speaker 1: that this podcast is recorded on the lands of the
Speaker 1: Gadighl people and pays respect to all Aboriginal and Torres
Speaker 1: Straight Island and nations. We pay our respects to the
Speaker 1: first peoples of these countries, both past and present.
Speaker 2: Good morning and welcome to the Daily os. It is
Speaker 2: somehow Friday, the first of December.
Speaker 3: I'm Zara, I'm Sam.
Speaker 2: Before we jump into what today's podcast is about, a
Speaker 2: very big thank you to everyone who tagged us in
Speaker 2: their Spotify wrapped It's our favorite time of the year,
Speaker 2: all those minutes that you have spent listening to us.
Speaker 2: But onto today's podcast. Earlier in the year, Health Minister
Speaker 2: Mark Butler announced sweeping measures to crack down on the
Speaker 2: use of apes here in Australia.
Speaker 3: As the federal government declares war on e cigarettes.
Speaker 2: In a world first that could see most e cigarettes.
Speaker 2: Band Mark Butler says, a cigarettes are creating a new
Speaker 2: generation of nicotine addicts and it must end that was
Speaker 2: back in May. But the reason that we're talking about
Speaker 2: it again. Today is because the government has released its
Speaker 2: timeline for rolling out these anti vaping measures and we're
Speaker 2: going to unpack everything you need to know about how
Speaker 2: vaping in Australia is changing in today's deep dive. But
Speaker 2: first Sam what's making headlines.
Speaker 3: Israel and Hummas have agreed to extend a pause in
Speaker 3: fighting by another day. Qatar's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which
Speaker 3: has helped mediate the deal, said in a statement Palestinian
Speaker 3: and Israeli sides reached an agreement to extend the humanitarian
Speaker 3: truce in the Gaza Strip for an additional day under
Speaker 3: the existing conditions. So far, under the deal, ninety seven
Speaker 3: hostages held by Hummas have been released and two hundred
Speaker 3: and ten Palestinian prisoners held in Israel have been released.
Speaker 2: Parents and alumni of a private boys' school in Sydney
Speaker 2: have launched a petition in protest of the school's decision
Speaker 2: to go co ed. Newington College announced it would begin
Speaker 2: accepting enrollments from girls to begin its journey to being
Speaker 2: completely co ed by twenty thirty three. However, some school
Speaker 2: community members say they're pushing against the change because they
Speaker 2: want to preserve the school's one hundred and sixty year
Speaker 2: old legacy.
Speaker 3: A parliamentary inquiry into employment services has made seventy five
Speaker 3: recommendations for the government to improve the sector and make
Speaker 3: it easier for unemployed Australians to find work. The Workforce
Speaker 3: Australia Employment Services Committee hands down its report on Thursday,
Speaker 3: which found national unemployment services are not fit for purpose
Speaker 3: after considering three hundred submissions. It recommended measures to simplify
Speaker 3: the process for job seekers, such as government services like Centrelink,
Speaker 3: collaborating with job listing platforms like Seek and LinkedIn.
Speaker 2: And the good news two kiwis have been born in
Speaker 2: the wild near New Zealand's capital city, Wellington, for the
Speaker 2: first time in over a century. The two baby Kiwis
Speaker 2: were found by the Capital Kiwi Project, who said in
Speaker 2: their posts that there will likely be other chicks out
Speaker 2: there on our hills from here onwards.
Speaker 3: So this year the federal government announced a major crackdown
Speaker 3: on vapes, and in particular they really focused in on
Speaker 3: vaping amongst young people now. In a speech at the
Speaker 3: National Press Club back in May, Health Minister Mark Butler
Speaker 3: flags that there were several restrictions in the pipeline that
Speaker 3: would target the so called black market in illegal vaping.
Speaker 4: No more bubblegum flavors, no more pink unicorns, no more
Speaker 4: vapes deliberately disguised as highlighter pins for kids to be
Speaker 4: able to hide them in their pencil cases.
Speaker 2: I feel like that was the architecture of the house
Speaker 2: of vaping measures. You know, we understood what was going
Speaker 2: to happen, what it would look like, but we didn't
Speaker 2: really get to fill the house with anything. We didn't
Speaker 2: know when it was going to happen, how it was
Speaker 2: actually going to play out in practice.
Speaker 3: We knew it was a focus area, we didn't know
Speaker 3: the specific.
Speaker 2: So the details came this week.
Speaker 3: Right, Yeah, And basically what you need to know is
Speaker 3: the federal government announced a vaping crackdown that's going to
Speaker 3: start on the first of January twenty twenty four, so
Speaker 3: in a couple of weeks, and there's going to be
Speaker 3: this initial ban on the import of disposable vapes. Once
Speaker 3: that's up and running, there's going to be further restrictions
Speaker 3: that are going to roll out in the months after that.
Speaker 2: I think one of the things that comes up every
Speaker 2: time we talk about vaping is a lack of clarity
Speaker 2: around what is actually already illegal, what is legal, and
Speaker 2: what is changing. Focus on the first part, what is
Speaker 2: the state of play currently when it comes to vapes.
Speaker 3: So right now it's illegal to purchase a nicotine vape
Speaker 3: in Australia unless you have a medical prescription and you
Speaker 3: can't sell them to somebody who doesn't have a prescription.
Speaker 2: Okay, but that hasn't stopped a whole cohort of people
Speaker 2: from vaping. What do we understand around its popularity?
Speaker 3: So the latest start that we've got, which is from
Speaker 3: the first quarter of this year, shows that around one
Speaker 3: in seven fourteen to seventeen year olds and one in
Speaker 3: five eighteen to twenty four year olds are currently vaping.
Speaker 2: I think we both know though that those numbers are
Speaker 2: severely perhaps underrepresenting what it looks like in reality. I mean,
Speaker 2: we've asked our audience a number of times it's a
Speaker 2: key area of focus and i'd say the reality is
Speaker 2: that it's frequently yeah okay. So in light of that,
Speaker 2: what are these changes now moving forward?
Speaker 3: Well, the government is really trying to work out how
Speaker 3: to regulate better and then enforce those regulations around their
Speaker 3: sale of e cigarettes, including new controls on how they're
Speaker 3: getting into the country, so the importation, what they're made of,
Speaker 3: the contents, and how they're packaged and so all of
Speaker 3: these measures are going to start with the importation of
Speaker 3: single use or disposable vapes, so you know them at
Speaker 3: some convenience stores they come in individual packaging, and this
Speaker 3: measure is aimed at cutting off the supply of these
Speaker 3: vapes at the source by banning them from entering Australia
Speaker 3: all together from the start of next year. Then we've
Speaker 3: got new regulations for the imp qotation of reusable vapes,
Speaker 3: so vapes that can be rear filled or that have
Speaker 3: cartridges that you can interchange, they're not going to be
Speaker 3: allowed to be imported into Australia from March of twenty
Speaker 3: twenty four. But this man is not going to impact
Speaker 3: people with medical prescriptions for vapes, and doctors often issue
Speaker 3: them to help patients quit smoking cigarettes. Now, under the
Speaker 3: changes to those reusable vape rules from March, importers will
Speaker 3: need to get approval from an authority, and that authority
Speaker 3: is going to be the Australian Drug Control Office before
Speaker 3: they can bring vape products into the country. They're also
Speaker 3: going to need, And this is really interesting. They're going
Speaker 3: to need to prove that their products comply with health standards,
Speaker 3: and at a basic level, that means they're going to
Speaker 3: need to show that what they say is in the
Speaker 3: vape is actually in the vape. But the government said
Speaker 3: this week that it would allow a transition period for
Speaker 3: businesses to give them time to comply with these new requirements.
Speaker 2: Okay, so hypothetically, yeah, if I was somebody that was
Speaker 2: to be legally obtaining a vape from next year, yeah,
Speaker 2: how would one go about that?
Speaker 3: So you're going to need to go to your GP,
Speaker 3: and you're presumably going to have a discussion with your
Speaker 3: GP around your nicotine addiction and how to manage that.
Speaker 3: They'll then give you a prescription that you can then
Speaker 3: feel out a pharmacy. Now, according to those comments from
Speaker 3: Mark Butler earlier this year, only one in twenty doctors
Speaker 3: are currently authorized to prescribe vapes, but the government wants
Speaker 3: to remove those restrictions so that every doctor can prescribe
Speaker 3: them to people who need it.
Speaker 2: One of the problems with regulation has always been the
Speaker 2: lack of teeth or the lack of enforcement. Sure, and
Speaker 2: I mean we've already seen this. There's already been a
Speaker 2: crackdown of sorts on vapes and yet they're everywhere. How
Speaker 2: is the government intending to actually enforce these rules in
Speaker 2: a different way to perhaps what they've already been doing
Speaker 2: that arguably isn't working.
Speaker 3: So the Health Minister has acknowledged that banning vape imports
Speaker 3: would be complex and it's going to require monitoring the
Speaker 3: Australian border. And he did concede that there would be
Speaker 3: some vapes that get into the country, but he said,
Speaker 3: and this is his quote, they will no longer be
Speaker 3: easy for school children, our most vulnerable and impressionable members
Speaker 3: of society to get their hands on them. Now, as
Speaker 3: to who's responsible for enforcing this band, it's going to
Speaker 3: be up to the Australian Border Force and they're going
Speaker 3: to be tasked with detecting and destroying band vapes.
Speaker 2: I think we've reported about the seizure of vapes, yeah,
Speaker 2: ten times in the last couple of months.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so they're definitely on the case now, and I
Speaker 3: guess they're treating it the same way they would treat
Speaker 3: the importation of other illicit products and substances from getting
Speaker 3: into Australia.
Speaker 2: There seems to be a big focus on the importation,
Speaker 2: so on this idea of bringing them into the country.
Speaker 2: What's clear is that there are already a lot of
Speaker 2: vapes in Australia, both being sold and being used. What's
Speaker 2: the government's plan to actually tackle the vapes already here?
Speaker 3: I think that's actually a really helpful way to frame it.
Speaker 3: So we've talked about the importing stuff. Now let's talk
Speaker 3: about what's actually happening domestic with sales. So there's new
Speaker 3: measures from the government proposed designed to stop the manufacture
Speaker 3: and advertising of vapes in Australia as well as the
Speaker 3: commercial possession of these disposable non medical vapes. And who
Speaker 3: they're targeting with these new regulations would be the retailers,
Speaker 3: so the retailers who sell the products. We don't actually
Speaker 3: know too much information around how the government is actually
Speaker 3: planning on doing this, whether there's kind of a squad
Speaker 3: that goes round to convenience stores and tries to work
Speaker 3: out who's selling what. So we're waiting for the legislation
Speaker 3: on the domestic vape restrictions and that's expected next year.
Speaker 3: What we do know about the government's plans for next
Speaker 3: year is that the government's going to make some more
Speaker 3: announcements about how it's cracking down on the flavors, colors
Speaker 3: and nicotine levels of vapes.
Speaker 2: But it does strike me that the marketing of these
Speaker 2: products are a huge part of the issue.
Speaker 3: Well, it's roll research and like who they're targeting. Bright colors, bubblegum,
Speaker 3: all those kind of flavors make it a very attractive
Speaker 3: product to young people.
Speaker 2: I think one of the questions that to mind is
Speaker 2: whether making it more difficult to access vapes could push
Speaker 2: a whole cohort who would have never been cigarette smokers
Speaker 2: but are now addicted to nicotine into being cigarette smokers.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's a really interesting kind of subdiscussion here, and
Speaker 3: I think the way that the Minister has approached it
Speaker 3: is expanding those powers given to gps and making it
Speaker 3: more accessible for people to talk to a GP about
Speaker 3: a nicotine addiction. And I have that as an effort
Speaker 3: to continue to steer people away from cigarettes whilst managing
Speaker 3: their vape u sea.
Speaker 2: I think the government absolutely has its work cut out
Speaker 2: for them, Definitely, anything, I think we're coming a bit
Speaker 2: late to this discussion, and when there is already something
Speaker 2: that has kind of penetrated an entire market. I eat
Speaker 2: young people think it'll be really hard, so it'll be
Speaker 2: interesting to see how they go with that. What has
Speaker 2: the general kind of industry response being to the announcements
Speaker 2: this week?
Speaker 3: So we heard from the Public Health Association, they're the
Speaker 3: country's peak body for public health, and they welcome to
Speaker 3: the announcement of the regulations coming next year. The body
Speaker 3: said nicotine addiction, respiratory illness, acute toxicity, and mental ill
Speaker 3: health are just the beginning of the harms it's seeing
Speaker 3: vaping cause. The body called proposed actions good news for
Speaker 3: parents and cares of young people who vape. We also
Speaker 3: know that Opposition leader Peter Dutton has been on the
Speaker 3: record to say the Opposition would support reforms to restrict vaping.
Speaker 3: He made those comments earlier this year.
Speaker 2: Before we wrap up today's episode, we do have a
Speaker 2: favor to ask you. We are working on a top
Speaker 2: secret project for next year, and in order to make
Speaker 2: that as incredible as we can, we are on the
Speaker 2: lookout for people with stories to tell about vaping. So
Speaker 2: if you've had a bad experience with vapes health wise,
Speaker 2: I want to talk to us about it. We'd love
Speaker 2: to hear from you. Alternatively, if you've had a good
Speaker 2: vape experience, we also want to hear from you. You
Speaker 2: can DM us on Instagram. It doesn't have to be
Speaker 2: a voice note this time, we just want to hear
Speaker 2: your story. Sorry, that's all from us today. Have a
Speaker 2: brilliant weekend, and we'll be back again on Monday.