The scorecard compiled by ACOSH (the Australian Council on Smoking & Health) is akin to an end of financial year report for each state and territory on how well they’re actually cracking down on tackling vapes and illicit tobacco.
The report looked at illegal sales and the enforcing of vape laws, whether the states and territories were protecting children and young people from marketing, ensuring that smoke free places are also vape free, but also who’s investing in public education and campaigns, and if state governments are keeping the tobacco industry in check.
“What we’ve seen is that South Australia and Queensland are leading the pack with their ability to shut down retailers – and they also have the ability to issue really hefty fines – and as a result, they’re seeing huge impacts on the ground,” ACOSH CEO Laura Hunter tells EducationHQ.
“South Australia have an incredible health minister in Chris Picton. He’s someone who has tackled the issue of tobacco before when he worked with Nicola Roxson, who was the Federal Health Minister 10 years ago. She was just stellar.
“Western Australia, which is where I’m based, and the Northern Territory however, are definitely lagging behind and need to really lift their game in this space in a big way.”
Hunter says while the many Federal Government reforms are undoubtedly world leading, without legislation being updated, there’s a disconnect between the federal laws and the ability of the states to enforce them.
From July 1 last year, the sale of all vapes other than from pharmacies was prohibited. That legislation aimed to close the ‘non-nicotine vape loophole’ that allowed retailers to sell mislabelled, illegal vapes and sparked the dramatic rise in young people vaping.
Between July and October last year, a prescription was required to access any vape from a pharmacy and since October 1, all vapes have been available only as behind-the-counter sales in pharmacies only, where state and territory laws allow.
Hunter says in WA it’s a matter of urgency for there to be updates to state tobacco laws, because without these the federal legislation lacks the bite needed to drive real change.
She says at present, kids are getting their hands on illegal vapes and teachers are dealing with this every day in class.
In WA and the NT, if a vape shop is reported for doing the wrong thing, a compliance team would have to visit the premises, witness a purchase or violation occurring, return with a warrant, giving shop owners plenty of warning and for the stock to magically disappear, Hunter says.
“Compare that to South Australia, where they have changed their laws so they can shut down stores immediately – and they’ve reported 500 inspections and 33 retailers being shut down. They have immediate powers to do that,” Hunter explains.
“They’ve also increased their penalties so it’s not just a slap on the wrist now. If you are selling tobacco in South Australia and you don’t have a license for it, you get slapped with a $750,000 fine for a first offence.
“It’s huge and it works to deter people because we just know that there are retailers who are doing the wrong thing, and if the consequences really take into account the fact that cigarettes and vapes are an addictive product, then we see impact on the ground where the government can actually enforce their own laws and that’s the biggest, most important factor for us really in getting on top of this issue.”
The scorecard measures progress across nine key areas and one of those includes what’s being done to protect kids from marketing.
The focus on World No Tobacco Day this year (May 31) was on unmasking the appeal and exposing industry tactics on tobacco and nicotine products.
“What we have at the moment is an industry that is intent on getting more and more children hooked onto nicotine,” Hunter explains.
“You can see that in the flavours available of big tobacco vaping products, you know, things like Skittles, Unicorn Milk.
“I’m yet to find a 66-year-old hardened smoker who’s been trying to give up cigarettes his whole life reaching for a Unicorn Milk flavoured vape.”
Hunter says it’s vital that governments, parents and educators are aware of the sinister strategies and targeting by big tobacco companies.
“We can’t have our eyes covered. We have to unravel their tactics and really expose them for what they’re doing.
“The theme of World No Tobacco Day is really strong, because it allows us to talk and have those conversations, those really important conversations about what tactics are being employed and how we can navigate them.”
An article published at the end of April by University of Sydney researchers, titled ‘We’ve seen it escalate – it’s a huge problem’: A mixed methods study of teachers’ perceptions of vaping in secondary schools, investigated teachers’ perceptions of student vaping in Australian secondary schools over a 12-month period.
It found that 85 per cent of teachers were concerned or very concerned about vaping at school, with the proportion who were very concerned increasing from 43 per cent to 55 per cent over the 12 months.
“Findings suggest inconsistent strategies to manage vaping in schools detract teachers from their core focus on teaching,” the report found.
“As vaping is a community-wide problem, a coordinated response across government is required to support teachers in reducing student vape use at school.”
The report stated that while school policies are important to address vaping, challenges to their adoption include poor coordination of efforts and a lack of time, capacity, training, staff knowledge and funding.
“Putting the onus on schools and teachers to monitor vape use and tobacco use in the school is so problematic,” Hunter says.
“It’s not the role of teachers and we don’t want to put that responsibility on teachers to do that. What we tried to advocate for heavily is investment in public education campaigns as a whole."
Some states need to really lift their game in that space as well, she says, particularly in Victoria where this is not an adequate state-based campaign on this.
“The same with Tasmania. In Tasmania, they’ve halved the budget for public education campaigns in this space as well and that’s only just come to light recently and it’s very, very problematic.
“We need to make sure that government is always prioritising evidence-based campaigns and evidence-based investment. There’s no point in developing an excellent campaign if you’re not going to provide enough ... media spend to get it out to the people that you need to reach.”
While Generation Vape data from February shows Australia is among the first globally to show early signs of success in slowing or halting the rise in adolescent vape access and use, this is a battle that is far from won.
“This is an industry that is intent on getting more and more kids hooked onto their products because all they worry about are their shareholders and their profit margins and that’s really the crux of it,” Hunter says.
