It is a pleasure to follow the Leader of the Nationals in this debate. I feel like I have to point this out, because I am sitting here listening to him talk about how long it has taken this side of the house to go ahead and introduce this really important bill: we have been doing an incredible amount of work in relation to this bill. It is extremely complex. You guys have talked about organised crime and firebombing today, as you should, but you have missed a whole other component of how we wipe out organised crime, and that is to stop people and prevent people from taking up smoking and vaping in the first place. You guys did not turn up to any of the public hearings that took place as part of the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee inquiry – I think the member for Gippsland South attended a couple, so this is really going to go to the member for Malvern over there. The Liberal Party fail to turn up to most things to talk to communities about their concerns about kids in particular taking up vaping in the first place, which is an easy pathway to then take up smoking later in life. The best way to stamp out organised crime and this illegal tobacco that has taken hold not just in Victoria but across the country is to stop it in the first place. But those opposite fail to talk to anyone in the community about anything that really matters to them, and that is why they can only stand here and talk about organised crime here in this place.
I would also say to those opposite: if this was such an important bill to you guys, why did you only introduce a private members bill last sitting week?
[Interjection]
Oh, it was not a bill, it was a press release. Let us call it a press release. Why did you only introduce it last sitting week? Let me tell you, because I am the one speaking here in this place on my feet. I will tell you why you introduced it: you introduced it because you knew we were going to introduce this –
[Interjection]
I do apologise, member for Malvern, for referring to the member for Malvern and the member for Murray Plains sitting across from me. I digress from what I really want to say about this bill, because I have talked to a lot of people about this bill as chair of the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee. We did an incredible inquiry into this topic. But I have also spoken to so many parents and families right across my electorate about this particular issue. This is an issue that people are really alive to and have been giving a great deal of thought to, and it is not just about organised crime. I want to give a really big shout-out to Sandro DeMaio, the previous CEO of VicHealth, because Sandro has done something fantastic for the Victorian community. He has been talking about the dangers of vaping and tobacco smoking for some time, and he has not just been talking about it but he has been putting together materials to educate families, to educate parents and to educate young people about not starting to vape in the first place or, if they are vaping and they are addicted to vaping, because vaping is addictive – it is an addictive, illegal substance in those vapes – how to get off them in the first place. Thank you, Sandro, for all the work that you have done in this space. You have truly improved the lives of Victorians when it comes to this.
The purpose of this bill that is being debated before the house today is to establish a new licensing scheme for tobacco retailers, and that was a commitment made by the Premier in March this year to go ahead and introduce a bill later this year, which is exactly why those opposite put out a press statement just two weeks ago – I think it was a one-pager, if anyone bothered to read it – about what they thought should happen in this space. But we have come forward with a bill that addresses and tries to tackle a really complex issue in this community. It is really complex because not only are people importing illegally vapes and illegal tobacco but also people have been addicted to it. They are looking for it – they need it as a drug. So this is really tricky, this bill, because we are trying to stamp it out in the first place but also looking at introducing a licensing scheme that is going to help eradicate lots of those illegal tobacco – I think we were calling them milk bars – small businesses in our community that are selling these illegal substances to our young people, to our children and to those addicted to smoking and vaping.
The message I have for these businesses, and there are a lot of them in the electorate of Laverton, is time is up. You guys have to get a licence or you can get out of town, and the majority of the community want them out of town. They do not want these shops being set up close to train stations, close to schools, whatsoever. Time is up. Get a licence or get out of town.
The key recommendations of the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee inquiry into vaping and tobacco controls, which was tabled earlier this year, was to set up this licensing scheme for tobacco retailers. I am really happy to see that the legislation has come before the house today. I know that I am on record many times in this place talking about how much I oppose smoking. My brother has been a smoker since he was about 13 or 14. He took up smoking vapes because he thought it would be easy to quit his cigarette smoking habit, and he found that he was then addicted to vapes. He is now back on the smokes unfortunately. It is a dreadful addiction. The previous Secretary for the Department of Health once described, before a PAEC hearing, the businesses selling this as ‘vendors of death’, and that is exactly what they are.
This bill coming before the house is really important. We know that smoking costs our economy nearly $10 billion each and every single year, and that is why, as I talked about earlier, it is just so important to help people quit smoking as much as possible. In PAEC’s inquiry that took place earlier this year we heard firsthand not just from anti-smoking advocates, we also heard from the industry as well, which was quite interesting, many of whom are trying to do the right thing. They do not want to see illegal tobacco sales taking place in this state, because let us face it, their revenue starts to reduce. They cannot compete with the retailers who are selling this stuff behind the counter. But it is not just overseas cigarettes in the colourful packs either, it is now the illegal disposable vapes, which were banned earlier this year by the federal government. These are being marketed to kids as a cool way to smoke without the nicotine, when in fact what the inquiry found is that these vapes would indeed have nicotine in them and it was being used as a gateway for kids to go ahead and smoke tobacco.
The bill does deliver the swift and decisive response to illegal tobacco trading that Victorians have been asking for. Like I said, this has been a topic that has been talked about and is still being talked about in our community. I think even after this licensing scheme is up and running and enforcement is in place, they will continue to talk about it. They will continue to talk about the addiction that we find that our young people have to these vapes and illegal tobacco, and that will be something as a community, as a society and not just as a government, we are going to have to deal with to change the status quo. We are setting up this licensing scheme, and we are setting up the toughest penalties in the country, which those opposite continue to fail to mention – the toughest penalties in the country – to deter and punish people who are engaging in this activity. This has really big impacts not just for my electorate but right throughout Victoria and, I would also say, across Australia. That is why I wholeheartedly commend the minister for her hard work in bringing this bill to the house, and I do indeed wish it speedy passage through the Parliament.
