I just called the above number for Greens Senator Steele-John’s office 0262773646.
They have been very busy with calls, they have not yet determined their stance on vaping.
It is important to continue to contact them & express your point of view on vaping.
They advised that we should also call Mark Butlers Office. However others have told them that Butlers Office are not taking calls 
These are the details for Mark Butlers Office
I phoned Mark Butlers’ Parliament Office and Option 5 takes you through to leave a “short” msg with a staff member. My message was that Mark Butler need to reconsider banning vaping as
it will stop those adults that rely on access to these products to not smoke cigarettes being able to access them (not the best message I could have left).
I was then advised to send Mark Butler an email, “they are all collated and presented”. Parliament House Email: minister.butler@health.gov.au
I have also written an email to Mark Butler, it ended up pretty long, so I will not bore you with all the details, however, I used the questions proposed by Dr Colin in this article to base my email on, using personal experience to outline how I thing these items will impact, ask questions etc…
Finding a doctor who supports vaping and obtaining a nicotine prescription can be a major hurdle.
The prescription pathway involves medical fees and pharmacy markups and is unaffordable for many low-income and disadvantaged people.
Successful vaping often involves experimentation to find the right setup that works for you. Starting all over again can be a major challenge.
Flavours play a major role in keeping vapers away from cigarettes but only tobacco and mint will be available. This is a deal-breaker for many vapers.
Vapers are angry and frustrated about government interference in their personal choices.
Most plan to continue purchasing supplies on the black market in spite of the risks involved. If history is any guide, the black market will simply go underground and illegal, unregulated supplies will remain widely available.
Many vapers have been stocking up with supplies to last for years.
Some vapers have said it’s all just too hard and have already gone back to smoking. Others intend to smoke again when the laws change.
I hope I am not too late with this last part, I have been struggling with health issues for sometime and it also seems that Mark Butler is reticent to make announcements…
I have not been hearing a lot on the advocacy side either but I’m probably out of the loop…
Here’s the email again if you wish to send one
minister.butler@health.gov.au
There’s timeline on dr Col twitter. Also will be illegal for vapers to be part of any vaping forums. This is becoming like a Dictator government.
Wait a minute, what ??!!
There’s a communication wording in the laws if passed. Which would be classified as advertising/ promoting vapes it’s ridiculous.
Ohhhh, I see …
Teenagers have urged the Australian government to help them break their nicotine addiction, submissions to a major consultation on vaping reforms reveal.
A submission to drug regulator the Therapeutic Goods Administration from South Australia’s commissioner for children and young people, Helen Connolly, included comments from some of the 950 teenagers aged 13-to-19 surveyed by her office about vaping.
A 16-year-old girl described how: “All we have to do is go to a cheap servo … and there we can buy a vape without being asked for identification of age”.
“There really needs to be restrictions put in place to make them not so easy to access and then the addiction would be forced to stop,” the teenager wrote.
“I know many people, me included, would be extremely angry at first when there [sic] in the first few days without nicotine but if adults want children to stop, I truly believe it’s the only way.”
I find this funny. Where is this girls parents? This government is opening a can of worms, much like the US government. Who’s going to enforce all these rules. Customs isn’t going to inspect every container. Local law enforcement can’t keep up with what they do or the budget to add more responsibility to go after vapers now. Did a teen really say something like they claim? Was she putting on a show to look good in front of her parents? Something smell’s fishy to me. It seems they are following the same play book as the US did when the FDA banned flavors except tobacco. Makes great propaganda to people who don’t care about vaping. Remember there are only two legal vapes in the US. Both from big tobacco.
@rcleven that is a PERFECT point. BUT, what if we EXPAND on that. Why don’t they enforce the EXISTING RULES !!!
I mean, can Aussie kids just go out and pick up pods wherever they want ?? If so, start TARGETING the stores who are SELLING them, and your problem, starts to go away.
Not enforcing existing laws, while introducing even MORE laws, just really isn’t the answer. Target those who are selling them illegally to the kids.
That’s what I thought.
Not true. They never go after a store in the US. They go after the 16 year old behind the counter. They figure they can’t close down every gas station in their jurisdiction. The owners don’t even get a slap on the wrist. Same with selling Alcohol to minors.
WARNING: this is a long read…
I had a little chuckle (sort of) when I read that apple.news link @Gazza7 put up. So he wants to stop the thriving black market does he? Mark, it’s not gonna happen. You’re deluding yourself.
And as far as those “teenage submissions” to the TGA go, yeah, OK. All fabricated BS if you ask me. Hey, I could be wrong but I don’t think I am.
Yeah, they can. Anyone can actually. There’s a 40-something bro’ where I work who gets them from the local lunch bar for crying out loud. I’ve tried telling him he’s playing “russian roulette” as far as the ingredients are concerned but he just shrugs his shoulders. What more can a bloke do, I’m not his mother.
Look, every man and his dog knows there’s easy ways of addressing this “teenage vaping problem” but Health Minister Butthead is obviously not interested. He’s just on an all too familiar power-trip just like the rest of ‘em. I could be totally wrong but maybe he’s just doing his “apprenticeship” before he heads off to the WEF, who knows.
We witnessed their intent with the previous government (Liberals) during Divoc-91 and a change of government (Labor) hasn’t changed a thing. If anything they’re worse. As soon as you realise it’s simply a case of “just follow the money”, it all becomes clear. Any excuse to try and bring back the billions in lost tobacco tax since more and more people have switched to vaping. We see you Mark and we notice…
To any Aussie family on here, my advice would be to stock up just in case this actually does go through. Obviously I’m hoping that it doesn’t but you never know. Grab as much nicotine on prescription as you can and start stocking up on hardware (like I’ve done). Learning how to make box mods would help as well. Other stuff like wire, batteries, PG, VG and flavourings should still be OK as they’re all used in “normal” activities aren’t they.
Yeah, this is definitely a shit-show but Butthead will never ban it completely. If he thinks he can then he’s nothing but a dreamer. They banned alcohol in the 1920s and that worked a treat didn’t it. They banned drugs and that also worked a treat. In case you were wondering, I was being sarcastic here 
. Prohibition achieves absolutely nothing. The goobers know this but they still go through this “charade” purely and solely for the cameras and the money. And people wonder why I don’t trust them.
Butthead and others like him are nothing but a putrid stench in the nostrils of the Almighty.
That’s EXACTLY how it read to me. Just a little TOO perfect.
My sentiments exactly. At the end of the day it’s an individual’s choice but with this new round of BS the headlines are only going to get worse for which this insidious curse of vaping will be blamed and NOT the backward,greedy and anti health decisions that have been made.
I read,on a slightly different note, that NZ has backtracked on their age related tobacco law but at least they’ve been open and honest and admitted they need the tax dollars.
There is strong and consistent evidence that young Australians who vape are around 3 times more likely to take up tobacco smoking compared to young Australians who have never vaped.
really ??
He forgot to add that deadly combustible tobacco will remain perfectly legal and available from all supermarkets, corner shops and tobacconists. Also that the tax revenue on combustible tobacco will increase year by year.
I’ve no problem with banning disposables and some of the other things mentioned but to enable law abiding adults to still access vaping the existing laws just require enforcing.
Not rocket science but I foresee this failing miserably. Hopefully after that a modicum of common sense prevails and sensible regulations will be implemented.
Dr. Colin Mendelssohn would be far better placed to answer that question but personally I doubt it. My honest thoughts are school kids are definitely getting hold of disposables and they also probably do have nicotine in them. I’m not going to put my head in the sand and say it’s all BS and there’s no point in saying otherwise. To me the truth is the truth.
But the big thing that’s not been mentioned is how many school kids accessed vaping before the nicotine laws were changed? I can’t say I noticed any kids vaping before that time and definitely didn’t see the amount of used disposables lying around that I do now. I think it’s fair to say that when the last change in the laws happened disposables came about and made access to vaping and nicotine easier for all, including school kids. In other words vaping appeared to become much more popular and obvious in this country after that.
Young adults as well as kids couldn’t be bothered to even change coils in tanks let alone build an RTA or mix their own juice. The only people I ever saw vaping was older adults and indeed I used to get some very funny looks sometimes. So much so that I often didn’t vape in public but was back then and still am convinced that vaping saved my life.
What I did see lying about a lot was what I believe are called ‘nangs’ or those little canisters that contain nitrous oxide that are used for whipping cream amongst other things.
These things
I do still see these but I’m sure not as much. I know the government made some changes to the availability of these but is it that kids just found something else? Obviously they’re still a legal product due to their original use so they weren’t banned outright or made available only through some sort of governmental system as far as I’m aware.
I’m all for trying to stop kids from accessing anything that’s potentially dangerous or habit forming but my opinion is they always have and unfortunately always will through whatever means possible. I actually do think these new laws will have an impact in that direction but I’ve no doubt the black market is poised and ready to capitalise which is far more dangerous.
The blatantly obvious path for the safety and health of all Australians is a sensibly and adequately policed regulatory approach. Only licensed and adequately trained professional vape businesses could sell vaping merchandise and juice. I appreciate this is next to impossible to monitor in regards to online shopping but deadly combustible tobacco and alcohol can also be bought online.
I could waffle on all day and I’m preaching to the converted but blind Freddy can see the inconsistencies in all of this.
It’s not about health.
It’s about protecting income
