Federal government introduces stronger vaping controls, funding package

Stronger regulation will extend beyond stopping imports to include restrictions on flavours, colours, other ingredients and the introduction of pharmaceutical-like packaging.

The allowed concentration and volume of nicotine will be reduced and all single-use, disposable vapes will be banned.

Vapes will also be locked out of retail settings, ending the product's current availability in convenience stores.

Tightened controls will be implemented jointly by the federal and state and territory governments, as they attempt to shut down the vaping black market.

The vaping industry found "the biggest loophole in Australian history", Mr Butler is due to say in his National Press Club address on Tuesday.

"Vaping was sold to governments and communities around the world as a therapeutic product to help long-term smokers quit," he will say.

"It was not sold as a recreational product - especially not one for our kids. But that is what it has become: the biggest loophole in Australian history.

E-cigarettes which contain nicotine can only be legally purchased with a doctor's prescription, under a law introduced in October 2021. But a black market has since flourished, often targeting children and teenagers.

Alongside tightening controls, the government announced a $234 million package to be included in the upcoming federal budget, aimed at addressing the harms of vaping and smoking among the population.

The funding package will include a $63 million public health information campaign to discourage vaping.

The greatest sum, $140 million, will be channelled into a program aimed at stopping smoking among First Nations peoples, which will be expanded to target vaping as well.

Another $30 million will go towards support programs to help people quit, and education and training for health practitioners in smoking and nicotine cessation.

Mr Butler will say one in six teenagers aged 14-17 has vaped, while among those aged 18-24, one in four has done so.

"And when more than 1000 teenagers aged 15 to 17 were asked where they could get vapes, four out of five of them said they found it easy or somewhat easy to buy them in retail stores," he plans to say.

"This is a product targeted at our kids, sold alongside lollies and chocolate bars."

Already the primary behavioural issue in high schools, vaping is also becoming widespread in primary schools, he will say.

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"Over the past 12 months, Victoria's poisons hotline has taken 50 calls about children under four becoming sick from ingesting or using a vape," Mr Butler will say

"Under the age of four!"

Mr Butler will use his address on Tuesday to slam the tobacco industry for creating "a new generation of nicotine addicts" and announce "this must end".