Butler said the excise on tobacco will increase by five per cent over the next three years, starting in September, and the treatment of all tobacco products will be aligned, in a move that he says will generate more than $3 billion in tax revenue.
"These changes will raise an additional $3.3 billion over the coming four years, including $290 million in GST payments to the states and territories," the health minister told the National Press Club today.
Butler also officially unveiled the crackdown on recreational vaping during his address, which comes after the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) provided the government with a "clear road map" following community and health group consultation.
Under the plan, which Butler said would address the "biggest loophole in Australian healthcare history", the importation of non-pharmaceutical vaping products will be prohibited, meaning they will only be able to be purchased with a prescription from pharmacies.
Single-use disposable vapes will be banned, the volume and concentration of nicotine concentrations and volumes and both flavours and packaging will be required to be plain, the latter with warning labels.
"To obtain an import permit, an importer will have to show that the vapes that they propose to sell comply with new standards and processes established by the TGA," Butler said.
"They will have to be imported for sale only in pharmacies. The import of vapes for sale in retail settings will end.
"These are supposed to be pharmaceutical products so they will have to present that way, no more bubble gum flavours, pink unicorns or vapes disguised as highlighter pens for kids to hide in their pencil cases."
Should disposable vapes be banned in Australia?
Yes
27529No
5872Butler said vaping posed a major health threat to young people.
"Vaping has now become the number one behavioural issue in high schools and it is becoming widespread in primary schools as well," he said.
"Over the past 12 months, Victoria's poisons hotline has taken 50 calls about children under the age of four ingesting vapes. Under the age of four.
"Vapes contain more than 200 chemicals that do not belong in the lungs."
The federal government will work with states and territories to close down the sale of vapes in convenience stores and other retail settings.
But it will still be legal to buy a vape with a prescription from your chemist to help smokers quit for good and Butler said the government will make it easier for doctors to prescribe them.
"Only one in 20 doctors are authorised by the TGA to prescribe vapes to those who need it. We think this has to change," he said.
"It will require removing the restrictions on doctors prescribing so that all doctors can write a script for those who really need it.
"Governments will also consider whether other proper therapeutic pathways should be examined to allow patients to obtain vapes through a pharmacy where they need them."
'Momentous' cancer screening program to start
Also announced by Butler during his address were a number of health programs to be included in next week's federal budget, including $30 million to help people quit smoking, a $260 million lung cancer screening program, and $240 million to address higher-than-average cancer and smoking rates in First Nations communities.
The green-lighting of the screening program has been called "momentous" by the Lung Foundation Australia.
Lung cancer is the nation's biggest cancer killer, with 14,500 patients diagnosed annually.
Only 20 per cent of those are alive five years later.
Lung Foundation Australia CEO Mark Brooke said it has been campaigning for five years for the scheme, which is predicted to save 12,000 lives over ten years.
"The announcement today gives much more than hope, it gives a second chance at life," Brooke said.
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