‘We’ve got to get this out of the hands of kids’: Entsch fumes on vape ban ‘fail’

Anger over youth vaping has triggered concerns in parliament about government policies that are meant to stamp out the sale of illegal nicotine, in a new sign of frustration with a federal government pledge to quash the black market.

Coalition MPs are warning about the “skyrocketing” sale of vapes to children and the rapid spread of illicit tobacco and vape stores in their local communities, despite federal Health Minister Mark Butler’s plans to restrict vaping to people with a doctors’ prescription.

Vape shops have proliferated despite the state and federal government’s crackdown on the importation and sale of vaping products.Credit: Edwina Pickles

The moves intensify a debate about whether Labor will succeed with its vow to ban the importation of single-use vapes when some tobacco store owners claim the new plan will only encourage the black-market trade in illegal vapes and tobacco.

Liberal National Party backbencher Phillip Thompson said the federal changes were not doing enough to stop the spread of illegal vape stores in his Queensland community and prevent the products being sold to children.

Thompson, who does not smoke or vape and has not received donations from tobacco or vape companies, invited members of a New Zealand activist group, Action for Smokefree 2025, to speak to about 20 backbenchers during the last sitting of parliament.

“I’m very concerned that the illicit trade is skyrocketing,” he told this masthead. “There’s a lot of people in the Coalition that are concerned with pop-up illegal tobacco stores and vapes sold to kids. We want to have a policy that will stop that.

“The whole approach the government is taking, to me, doesn’t make sense. I don’t want to see the illegal market explode, especially in the regions, where police have already told me they can’t police it.”

It became illegal to import single-use vapes on January 1, and from March people will not be allowed to import their own vaping products, either. But Labor’s legislation to stop retail stores selling vapes is yet to come before the parliament.

Another LNP backbencher, Warren Entsch, said he had tried to track down the ownership of half a dozen vape stores in his electorate, which includes Cairns and Cape York, because of the growth in the trade.

“We’ve got to get this stuff out of the hands of the kids,” he said. “It’s a disgrace. And it’s having a huge impact on legitimate businesses that comply with the law.”

Member for Leichhardt Warren Entsch believes Australia should consider adopting New Zealand’s regulatory model. Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

Entsch said vapes should be banned for children but regulated for adults because this would be more effective than a ban, while he also said that governments needed to put more resources into surveillance and prosecutions for stores that break the law.

The opposition backbenchers’ concerns mark a shift in sentiment within the Coalition, after a party room debate in 2020 when several Liberals objected to plans to crack down on vaping.

The director of Action for Smokefree 2025, Ben Youdan, said he told the federal MPs that New Zealand’s regulations contributed to “a profound decline in smoking rates – a 40 per cent decline in just three years, which is unprecedented. Over the same period, the smoking rate in Australia has flatlined.”

The group, formerly known as Action on Smoking and Health, is not funded by tobacco or vape companies and has campaigned against tobacco and nicotine addiction since 1983.

Australia’s daily smoking rate is about 10 per cent, compared with 8 per cent in New Zealand. However, New Zealand’s youth vaping rates are higher: 22.9 per cent of 18- to 24-year-olds said they vaped daily, compared with 19.8 per cent of young Australians who are current vapers.

New Zealand last year tightened its vaping rules – limiting flavours and nicotine content – out of concern about the steep youth uptake. But it has so far steered away from Australia’s medical model, saying it doesn’t want people to turn to tobacco because vapes are inaccessible.

One tobacco store owner, Pam Wright, told this masthead that disposable vapes were still being sold by illegal stores in her communities despite the ban that started on January 1.

“The vast majority of nicotine vaping products come from China via organised crime groups by air and by sea in vast quantities – this is a very lucrative business,” she said.

“We’ve got to get this stuff out of the hands of the kids. It’s a disgrace.”

Liberal MP Warren Entsch

Wright owns 10 stores from Mackay to Cairns and estimated that 18 stores selling illicit vapes and tobacco had opened in northern Queensland over the past four months, undercutting her business and not paying tobacco excise to the federal government on their illegal imports.

Butler will within the next few weeks introduce legislation banning retail vape sales, which will then need to be enforced by states and territories.

“I hope that our world-leading vaping reforms become bipartisan policy,” he said.

Opposition health spokeswoman Anne Ruston said the Coalition remained open to “all sensible and workable options that will prevent children from getting access and becoming addicted to vaping”.

“My colleagues share my concern that without tackling the issue of enforcement, the current black market activity will only get worse,” she said.

NSW Liberal senator Hollie Hughes gained support from more than two dozen colleagues during the 2020 debate to tell then health minister Greg Hunt that vaping was a “freedom of choice” issue and should not be banned.

Nationals leader David Littleproud threw his support behind regulating vapes like cigarettes last year, citing concern for children accessing vapes on the black market. But the consumer model was at the same time being pushed by tobacco companies, which donated $130,000 to the Nationals in the 2022-23 financial year, according to latest electoral commission information.

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