Former Australian health minister Greg Hunt says vaping will cause “catastrophic public health outcomes” in the coming decades, defending his country’s prescription-only model despite black market growth.
He also advocated for the creation of a single clinical trial zone between Australia and New Zealand to make the nation-pairing a “one-stop shop” for medical research.
Hunt told Q+A this week that vaping was “overwhelmingly an on-ramp to tobacco use” and rejected suggestions Australia should follow New Zealand’s approach to e-cigarettes.
The former Liberal minister said Australian National University research showed vaping led people to smoking, contradicting harm reduction arguments.
“I don’t think it’s a solution,” Hunt said.
“There are a lot of never-smokers who are taking up vaping, and that is a significant health risk. I think we will see over the coming decades — just as we did with cigarettes — some catastrophic public health outcomes and people dying difficult deaths.”
The ex-minister also advocated for New Zealand and Australia to create a “single clinical trial zone” where approvals in one nation would be accepted in the other.
“Whether that’s in terms of testing vaccines, therapeutics, whether that’s in terms of breakthrough new immunotherapies for cancer, or statins for cardiac conditions.
“We could present ourselves to the world as a one-stop shop, a single jurisdiction, where approval in New Zealand would be enough for Australia [and vice versa].
“If we then have a market of over 30 million people, more clinical trials are likely to be done here. Great for the economy. Much more importantly, a really exciting opportunity for medical research and for improving health.”
Hunt also spoke about his country’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic and how it compared to New Zealand.
For the full interview, watch the video above
Q+A with Jack Tame is made with the support of New Zealand On Air