Extract from The Guardian
From 1 July the only vapes available in this country should be those prescribed by medical practitioners and dispensed by pharmacies. As a paediatrician who has witnessed the extraordinary increase in childhood vaping addiction in Australia, I wish our government had the courage to do this years ago. As a politician, I’m watching with concern the pushback from the tobacco and vaping lobby – and the political parties they support.
The number of young Australians who vape has increased 12-fold in the last four years, to more than 12%. Vaping is highly addictive. With vaping rates soaring, we’ve also seen a tripling in teen smoking – the first time our teen smoking has risen in decades. It’s an entry point to the tobacco industry, which still kills at least 20,000 Australians a year.
Protagonists for the vaping industry are fighting tooth and nail to protect their patch, using the same playbook we’ve seen in the past from big tobacco. The fact is, it’s largely the same industry.
First, they’re going hard on influencer marketing and product placement. Instagram alone is home to more than 18,000 Australian “vaping influencer” profiles, many of which are directly linked to online vape stores.
Then there are the advertising campaigns fronted by lobby groups and related commercial interests. The Australian Retailers Association formerly had a contract with the global PR firm Burson Cohn and Wolfe to promote legalisation of e-cigarettes – a contract funded by Philip Morris International. Responsible Vaping Australia is an initiative of British American Tobacco. Brian Marlow, executive director of the Australian Taxpayers’ Alliance, is also campaign director for Legalise Vaping Australia. In 2021-22, Marlow made donations totalling $44,000 to the Liberal party. The donations were declared as personal gifts – and it was only later revealed that they came from LVA’s $98,000 fighting fund, in partnership with Australian Retail Vaping Industry Australia (funded by Philip Morris). Marlow denies that the source of the donations was concealed.
Then there are the extensive links between political parties and the tobacco industry. Researchers from the University of Sydney and Cancer Council NSW have reported that almost half (48%) of tobacco company lobbyists held positions in state, territory or federal government before or after working in the tobacco industry. The relationship is particularly close between the tobacco industry and the Nationals; lobby groups engaged by BAT have hired both Michael Kauter, a former deputy director of the Nationals and a close friend of Senator Hollie Hughes, and Jeremy Greenwood, a former adviser to the Nationals senator Matt Canavan. When the 2020 Senate tobacco harm reduction inquiry recommended that e-cigarettes should be banned, Canavan and Hughes wrote a dissenting report supportive of vapes.
Australia is a signatory to the World Health Organization’s framework convention on tobacco control; Department of Health guidelines say public officials including politicians should not attend social functions with tobacco company representatives. The health minister, Mark Butler, wrote to all parliamentarians on 15 March to remind them of this guideline – but it’s unenforceable. Philip Morris Limited gave $75,000 to the Nationals in 2023, a week after Butler announced his vaping reforms. In the same year BAT donated $55,000 to the Nationals. Almost a fifth of the party’s receipts in 2022-23 came from tobacco companies – donations giving the companies “foundation” memberships with access to Nationals members at events, lunches and budget dinners. Is it a coincidence that Nationals leader, David Littleproud, is now calling for regulation, rather than prohibition, of vaping in Australia?
Meanwhile, the tobacco industry is promoting its vaping devices – it’s walking both sides of the street. Philip Morris International is supplying some Australian pharmacies with its VEEV vaping products below cost, on the condition that they sign a supply deal with the tobacco giant. PMI is also supplying vapes to telehealth providers including MyDuke, which provide patients with scripts usable only at their own online pharmacies, raising questions about restrictive prescribing. PMI expects that its vaping products will bring in between $17bn and $19bn globally by 2025 – roughly 42% of its revenue.
The government’s vaping legislation is important. It’s possibly too late – and it’s going to be tough to enforce – but I congratulate Mark Butler for having the courage to take on this scourge of an industry. The government must now put limits on lobbyists’ relationships with politicians, close the revolving door between ministerial and senior public service jobs in the tobacco industry, and ban political donations from harmful industries. All these measures would be enacted if the government adopted the crossbench’s integrity agenda. The bills are already tabled.
Big tobacco is back, aided and abetted by the Nationals. This vaping legislation is a courageous start but it leaves gaping integrity issues unresolved. Big tobacco will keep returning while Australia remains weak on integrity.
Dr Monique Ryan is the independent MP for Kooyong
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