MEDIA RELEASE - ALIVE Welcomes LNP’s Retail Vaping Policy – But Warns: Excessive Tax Could Send Australians Back to Smoking
- Pippa Starr
- 5 days ago
- 2 min read
MEDIA STATEMENT
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
2 May 2025
ALIVE Welcomes LNP’s Retail Vaping Policy – But Warns: Excessive Tax On Vaping Products Could Send Australians Back to Smoking!
ALIVE, Australia’s leading voice for ex-smokers and tobacco harm reduction advocates, welcomes the announcement by the Liberal-National Coalition to regulate vaping in a retail setting, ending the failed experiment of pharmacy-only access. This is a critical step toward dismantling the dangerous and growing black market that has exploded under current federal policy.
For too long, Australian adults who have successfully quit smoking by switching to vaping (96% of all Vapers) have been silenced and/or criminalized, stigmatised, and forced to navigate illicit and unregulated supply chains. The current laws have:
• Fuelled organised crime
• Driven up youth access through unregulated supply
• Pushed law-abiding adults into illegal behaviour
• And eroded public confidence in our public health system
By reintroducing legal, regulated access through general retail, the LNP is acknowledging the failure of prohibition and offering a path toward sensible, evidence-based harm reduction.
But this progress risks being undermined by the proposed $1 per millilitre tax on vape liquids the LNP announced yesterday as part of their budget costings, which would make vaping more expensive than smoking for many Australians, particularly those from lower socioeconomic backgrounds.
“Taxing vaping into oblivion is not health policy, it is a gift to Big Tobacco, organised crime, and the coffin nail industry. It risks sending people straight back to cigarettes,” said Pippa Starr, the spokesperson for ALIVE.
Let’s be clear: people vape to quit smoking. The science is clear: Nicotine vaping is at least 95% less harmful than smoking, and yet, under this tax proposal, ex-smokers will be financially punished for making a healthier choice.
Here’s what the Coalition’s proposed tax risks:
•Pushing ex-smokers back to smoking because cigarettes may become cheaper than vapes
•Preventing adult smokers from switching to vaping due to cost
•Boosting black market demand, particularly for cheaper, unregulated, unsafe products
•Creating an uneven playing field, where the Black Market dominates and small businesses and vape specialists are priced out
The projected $3.6 billion revenue over four years should ring alarm bells. This is not a public health strategy, it’s a sin tax grab that risks turning public health into a balance sheet item.
Instead of pushing vulnerable Australians back to smoking, we call for a tiered taxation model that reflects the relative risk of nicotine products:
•Low taxes on vaping and other smoke-free alternatives
•Higher taxes on deadly combustibles like cigarettes
•No tax windfalls that come at the cost of public health
ALIVE urges all political parties to stop treating nicotine harm reduction as a political football. It’s time to listen to experts, ex-smokers, and frontline health workers who see the benefits of vaping every day. We must put people before politics and prioritise saving lives over raising revenue.
A regulated, proportionately taxed vaping market can:
✅ Drive down smoking rates
✅ Eliminate black market supply
✅ Protect youth through real enforcement
✅ Empower adult smokers to quit for good
Let’s get this right because lives are at stake!
ALIVE Advocacy Movement Contact:
Pippa Starr (Director/Media Spokesperson)
