Parliamentary bill will also ban the advertising of vapes and restrict their flavours, packaging and marketing
Smoking is set to be banned outside schools and hospitals as part of a crackdown on one of the UK’s biggest killers and its most common cause of cancer.
But the government has dropped plans to outlaw smoking outside pubs and restaurants, prompting health campaigners to complain about “vested interests” covertly influencing policy.
Continue reading...About 200,000 e-cigarettes found in Box Hill South after officers were told of reported burglary on Thursday
Victorian police called to an early morning break-in this week found something unexpected: about 200,000 illegal vapes worth $8m.
The vapes were found in a warehouse in Melbourne’s outer east after officers responded to reports of a commercial robbery, police said in a statement on Saturday.
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National weather forecasts
Sticking with the weather, here’s a look at the forecasts across Australia’s capital cities today:
Continue reading...Federal health minister also calls for prosecution of shopkeepers caught illegally selling vapes
The federal health minister, Mark Butler, says he is “astounded” that medical students can spend as little as one hour learning about menopause and has signalled that the government is likely to take action after a damning parliamentary inquiry.
On Sunday Butler told the ABC’s Insiders that several inquiries had told a “shameful story” about women’s treatment in Australia’s health system, saying there was more to do after Labor’s “modest investments” in women’s health.
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Continue reading...Junk food ad ban, age limit on energy drinks and expanded water fluoridation among measures planned to help NHS
Plans to ban junk food ads and to stop children buying high-caffeine energy drinks are among radical public health measures being drawn up by ministers to prevent illness and so ease pressure on the NHS.
The government made clear it would face down “predictable cries of ‘nanny state’” because Keir Starmer was convinced this was the way to fix the service.
Continue reading...High school students with depression or poor wellbeing are twice as likely to have vaped at some time, survey of 5,000 shows
Australian high school students with symptoms of severe depression or poor wellbeing are twice as likely to have tried vaping, a new study has found.
The study also found one-fifth of students in years 7 and 8 had moderate to severe depression symptoms and demonstrated the need for early intervention targeting both mental health and vaping, experts said.
Continue reading...Vaping synthetic opioids can cause overdose or unconsciousness within minutes and from just six puffs, Victorian medical expert says
A teenager died and a young man was left struggling to breathe after vaping synthetic opioids, as doctors warn the potentially deadly drugs are contaminating a growing range of recreational substances.
The patients overdosed after vaping THC, the psychoactive component of cannabis, mixed with protonitazene, a synthetic opioid 100 times more potent than heroin.
Continue reading...WikiLeaks X account has tweeted that ‘Julian Assange is free’. Follow today’s news headlines live
‘It’s just a lazy delay’
Bill Shorten says a further delay of the Senate vote on the NDIS bill won’t actually lead to any changes:
There’s no good reason on God’s green earth to have another eight weeks of review, which isn’t actually eight weeks.
There won’t be a whole lot of new submissions come in, there won’t be some brand new arguments not considered.
I’m horrified after 12 months of reviewing the NDIS and then another six months of discussing the review including [in] the last three a Senate committee having public hearings calling for submissions.
The opposition has used words never ever said before by them.
Continue reading...Exclusive: AMA president says party’s push to regulate vapes like cigarettes is a ‘tax grab’ that shows ‘complete disregard’ for health
The Australian Medical Association has accused David Littleproud and the Nationals of taking the advice of the tobacco lobby over health experts on vaping and accused the junior Coalition party of seeking “to gamble with people’s health”.
Ahead of a crucial vote on the government’s anti-vaping restrictions in parliament this week, the AMA president, Prof Steve Robson, claimed the Nationals’ suggestion of regulating vapes the same way as cigarettes is “a tax grab that shows a complete disregard for the health of Australians”.
Continue reading...Recommendation comes after two days of hearings and nearly 300 submissions from health, education, pharmaceutical and other sectors
A bill to ban the manufacture, sale and advertising of vapes in Australia should be passed, a Senate committee has recommended, after evidence from public hearings and almost 300 submissions.
If passed by the Senate, the legislation will mean the only way vapes can legally be obtained is through a prescription from a GP or nurse practitioner. A vote is expected in June.
Continue reading...The number of tourists on K’gari could soon be capped on the busiest days of the year. Follow today’s news live
CFMEU welcomes funding of 15,000 fee-free construction Tafe places in budget
The CFMEU has welcomed a funding boost for apprenticeships and traineeships in the upcoming budget.
This investment will mean more apprentices and trainees will get the training they need to build critical housing and infrastructure that Australia desperately needs …
There’s an often-overlooked distinction between apprenticeships and traineeships but thankfully the government recognises the importance of both – that’s critical to addressing construction skills gaps.
If they don’t mobilise this government into real action I just don’t know what will. Half of all threatened species becoming extinct is an intolerable outcome.
Report after report has shown the terrible decline of biodiversity in NSW, and the Ken Henry review of biodiversity laws gave the government very clear recommendations on how to slow and reverse this trend, but the government still hasn’t responded after seven months.
Continue reading...Philip Morris International has supported non-smoking programmes around the world ‘to advance its own interests’, say health professionals
The tobacco company Philip Morris has sponsored courses for doctors in multiple countries, in what critics have called a “grotesque” strategy.
Medical education programmes on quitting smoking and harm reduction in South Africa, the Middle East and the US have been supported by Philip Morris International (PMI) or its regional subsidiaries, according to advertising material seen by the Guardian.
Continue reading...Research finds hormone that indicates fertility at lower levels in vapers and tobacco smokers
Women should give up vaping if they are hoping to get pregnant, according to a study that suggests it may affect fertility.
In the first research to demonstrate a link between fertility prospects and electronic cigarettes across a large population, analysis of blood samples from 8,340 women revealed that people who vape or smoke tobacco had lower levels of anti-Müllerian hormone (AMH), which indicates how many eggs women have left in their ovaries.
Continue reading...Consumers Health Forum calls on Australian government to address ‘significant safety concerns’ about prescribing without any conversation with patient
Australia’s health regulator is fielding complaints about the use of artificial intelligence during telehealth prescribing, and patients being issued with prescriptions without ever speaking with a doctor.
A spokesperson for the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (Ahpra) told Guardian Australia the agency had received 550 notifications about telehealth consults and prescribing across health professions since July 2020. Of those, 30% related to complaints about a practitioner not adequately assessing a patient, they said.
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Renewed push to scrap activity level requirements for childcare subsidies
There was a lot of disappointment last budget when the government did not scrap the activity test as a way of making early child education more accessible and universal.
Zoe Daniel MP, Member for Goldstein
Georgie Dent, the CEO of the Parenthood
Sam Page, the CEO of Early Childhood Australia
Kate Carnell, the former Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman and former ACT chief minister
Natalie Walker, the deputy chair of Goodstart Early Learning
Sue Morphett, a businesswoman and the former president of Chief Executive Women
Continue reading...GPs say patients should be able to fill scripts at any pharmacy and that a health professional should be consulted first
Australia’s drugs regulator is investigating several telehealth platforms that offer prescriptions only for nicotine vaping products, which experts warn could compromise patient care.
The Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) confirmed it was assessing the vaping prescription telehealth sites medicalnicotine.com.au, myduke.com.au, quitmate.com.au and a site related to quitmate, medmate.com.au.
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Both sides of politics are pulling out all the stops as the Dunkley byelection goes down to the wire.
Speaking on Sunrise this morning, the education minister, Jason Clare, and the deputy opposition leader, Sussan Ley, went head-to-head over a tweet she published last night.
You should delete the tweet… This is a classic example of why women aren’t joining the Liberal party and why they’re not voting for the Liberal party, because of that classic, desperate, grubby political scare campaign we saw from the Liberal party yesterday.
I don’t know, really, you must wake up in the morning, look in the mirror and think, after 25 years of being a member of parliament, is this what I’ve become? I’m reduced to putting out tweets like this?
Anyone who watched question time during this week and saw your hopeless immigration minister unable to demonstrate that he even knows where his criminals [are], what they’re doing, who’s monitoring them and whether the community is safe, would probably not agree with what you’ve just said.
Continue reading...Doctors admit helping patients quit vaping is a ‘new experience’ ahead of a near-total ban coming into force on 1 July
GPs are preparing for a rush of patients seeking prescriptions for vapes or help to give up smoking, with a peak doctor’s lobby admitting it is a “new experience” for some medical experts ahead of new government vaping crackdowns and a near-total ban on electronic cigarettes from July.
The health minister, Mark Butler, says there is a need to “upskill” some GPs to help Australians off vapes. The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) says doctors are well-equipped to handle the looming changes, which will outlaw vapes without a prescription, but the head of the Australian Medical Association says it may be a difficult task.
Continue reading...Health department rejects seller’s taunt ‘new rules don’t apply to us’ and points to ‘escalated enforcement action as appropriate’
A New Zealand online vape seller is taunting the Albanese government over its vaping reforms, telling customers “we have no intention of stopping” vape shipments because of “one twat in Canberra”, presumably in reference to the federal health minister, Mark Butler.
From Friday, importation of vapes to Australia is banned unless an importer has a licence and permit. Prescription vape importers and manufacturers also need to notify the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) of their product’s compliance with standards.
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Ex-cyclone Lincoln could gather strength and redevelop
A massive storm that lashed the Top End with heavy rain could gather strength and redevelop into a tropical cyclone, AAP reports.
We’ve seen all the leaders of major parties say they take on board and accept in the recommendations … but it appears very little has changed on the ground. We still have unlimited and unmonitored alcohol consumption in Parliament House and in the workplace.
That’s why I put to the prime minister random testing could be introduced. Because we know from – even from driving, it’s a deterrent. As soon as you have a risk of getting caught, it changes behaviour.
People have had enough of politicians thinking there’s different standards that apply to them in Parliament House than what applies in other workplaces.
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