Australian politicians who recognise the public health potential of e-cigarettes will get votes, but most remain afraid to promote the world's most effective smoking cessation tool, the Coalition of Tobacco Harm Reduction Advocates for Asia Pacific (CAPHRA) said.

"Australia's political leaders need to get their heads out of the sand. More than 20,000 Australian smokers die prematurely each year from smoking-related diseases, and 2.3 million are still smoking. However, the worry is that no one wants to Seriously address the failure of successive governments to reduce tobacco harm,” said CAPHRA Executive Coordinator Nancy Loucas.

CAPHRA's comments come as the campaign heats up ahead of Australia's federal election on May 21.

Australia is the only country that requires a prescription for nicotine to use e-cigarettes. In addition, its Ministry of Health's draft National Smoking Strategy 2022-2030 proposes additional measures to prevent smokers from switching to safer nicotine products.

"Thousands, if not millions of Australians support tobacco harm reduction (THR) approaches and the availability of regulated safer alternatives. We are now calling on voters to confront the Australian election MP and ask why they continue to support such a failure quit or die,” Ms Lucas said.

To the reluctance of politicians, many in the Australian media continue to perpetuate myths about the success of smoking in the country and the risks of vaping, CAPHRA said.

Australia's success in reducing smoking rates was the envy of the world, a leading morning paper last month claimed. Join the chorus as it calls on the federal government to redouble its efforts to crack down on vaping before it becomes popular among our young people and induces them to smoke.

“As evidenced by neighbouring and more progressive New Zealand, e-cigarettes are the exit, not the entrance, of smoking. New Zealand aims to be 5% or less smoke-free by 2025. In stark contrast, Australia is far from miles, simply because deadly cigarettes are still more readily available than proven alternatives and are thought to be 95% less harmful,” Ms Loucas said.

Australian THR expert Dr Colin Mendelsohn described the national smoking strategy of the past decade as an embarrassing failure. In 2018, a target of 10% daily smoking prevalence among adults was set, but only 13.8% were achieved. He believes Australia will miss the 10 per cent target again if adult smokers don't have easy access to e-cigarettes.

“In the past, some Liberal MPs have expressed pro-vaping positions and Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce has publicly supported it, so we have some hope for positive change. However, Australia continues to lag behind the majority when it comes to vaping. Asia-Pacific countries. Need for effective tobacco control policies," she said.

Last year, Australia's Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) expanded its prescription-only model, with customs bans at the border for personal imports such as nicotine vaping liquids from overseas sites.

Ms Lucas said the appeal of tobacco taxes also helped to quell the vaping debate in this election. In fact, the continued growth of tobacco excise tax has made it the fourth largest personal tax collected by the Australian federal government, amounting to an estimated $15 billion per financial year.

CAPHRA noted that nearly 70 countries have adopted regulatory frameworks for safer nicotine products. Since then, all of them have reported a sharp drop in smoking rates.

“Australia is lagging behind the US, UK and New Zealand, and some major Asian countries are now looking to lift their failed vaping bans. If politicians running for Australia really want to save lives in this election, this is their best chance ” said Nancy Lucas.

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