The ABC Is Not Asking Questions — It’s Taking Sides on Vaping

Alan Gor 03 August 2025

As Australia suffers the predictable fallout of its aggressive anti-vaping policies from skyrocketing youth smoking to flourishing black markets, one voice is conspicuously absent from the conversation: the national broadcaster. The ABC, supposedly an independent pillar of journalism funded by the Australian people, has abandoned neutrality and joined the prohibitionist camp.

Instead of holding the government to account, the ABC appears committed to reinforcing a single, unchallenged narrative, one that aligns closely with the ideological views of the Department of Health and its favoured academics. It’s a dangerous dereliction of journalistic duty.

A One-Way Street: Prohibition or Bust

Over the past two years, Australia’s vaping policies have hardened into one of the most extreme prohibitionist regimes in the world. Personal possession of nicotine vapes is now a criminal offence. Adults who once used vaping to quit smoking are being pushed back toward cigarettes or the unregulated black market. Teenagers, ironically, the group these laws claim to protect, are now more likely to smoke.

And yet the ABC has shown no interest in interrogating this failure.

In fact, it’s doing the opposite. Becky Freeman, one of the architects of the prohibitionist messaging, has been featured on the ABC twice in just the last two days. Her “Generation Vape” research, which used a flawed methodology to suggest vaping among teens is spiralling out of control, has been presented as gospel, with zero challenge, zero balance, and zero mention of the counter-evidence.

Where are the voices of dissent? Where are the experts in tobacco harm reduction, who could provide a different perspective? Where are the adult ex-smokers who are being pushed back to smoking due to these policies?

Nowhere to be seen.

What the ABC Won’t Tell You

Here’s what Australians aren’t hearing from their public broadcaster:

• Roy Morgan data shows that youth smoking (18–24) has increased since the 2024 vape ban. The ABC refused to cover this even when the original Roy Morgan report mysteriously disappeared from public view and was quietly rewritten.

• Australia is alone in the developed world in criminalising nicotine vapes. In the UK, NZ, the US, and across Europe, vaping is regulated, not banned and widely used as a smoking cessation tool.

• Adult smoking is rising again for the first time in decades. Not a word from the ABC. Not a question for the Health Minister. Just silence.

• The black market for vapes is booming. Unregulated products, sold to minors with no controls or oversight. Who’s talking about that? Not the ABC.

The Same Voices, Repeated On Loop

Time and time again, the ABC turns to the same small group of academics to frame the issue. Most of them are closely aligned with organisations like the Cancer Council or funded through government research grants. Many have built careers on pushing tobacco control to its most punitive extremes.

This is not balanced. This is not science. This is narrative control.

Public health is not meant to be a religion. It requires scrutiny, testing of assumptions, and ongoing evaluation of effectiveness. But you wouldn’t know that if the ABC were your only source of information.

When Journalism Becomes Propaganda

The ABC has run story after story featuring:

• Vaping “epidemics” in schools based on dubious survey questions or panic from principals

• “Toxic chemicals” in vapes with no mention of relative risk compared to smoking

• Alleged links between vaping and violence, often via anonymous claims

But where are the stories on:

• Ex-smokers who credit vaping with saving their lives?

• International health authorities (UK, NZ, Canada) supporting vaping as a cessation tool?

• The unintended consequences of prohibition, like the tobacco store arsons and vape shop assaults?

They don’t exist. Because this isn’t journalism, it’s advocacy wearing the mask of objectivity.

A Repeat of Robodebt Culture

The parallels with Robodebt are impossible to ignore. That policy also targeted a vulnerable group with punitive measures, justified with moralistic language and false certainty. It took a Royal Commission to expose the truth.

Today, it’s the vaping consumers who are being demonised — a distinct subgroup, many from working-class backgrounds, many trying to quit smoking — treated with suspicion and punished for choices that deviate from the government’s ideological line.

And once again, the ABC is not asking questions.

This Is Not What the ABC Is For

Australians fund the ABC to act as an independent check on government power. That includes the power of health departments, academics, and NGOs. When the ABC fails to question these groups, especially when their policies are clearly not working, it fails the people it serves.

Instead, we get a steady stream of fear-mongering, half-truths, and omission.

The ABC is not just failing to inform. It is actively misinforming by omission, by bias, and by uncritical amplification of government talking points. As Dr Joe Kosterich say, this is "their ABC"

We Deserve Better

If you’re frustrated by this one-sided reporting, you’re not alone. And you’re not powerless.

• Write to the ABC: Demand balance and accountability.

• Share this post: Let others know that the public broadcaster is failing in its mission.

• Support independent voices who are trying to bring transparency to this issue.

The facts are on the side of smarter regulation, harm reduction, and adult choice. But unless we demand better, we’ll keep getting the same fear-driven, prohibitionist narrative with the ABC leading the charge.

This isn’t just about vaping. It’s about media integrity, evidence-based policy, and the future of public health in Australia.