The Development of E-cigarette Policy in Australia: The Policy, How It Came About and How It Is Justified

Abstract

Australia has banned the sale of nicotine-containing e-cigarettes as consumer goods. Australian policy allows their use on prescription, but it has been very difficult for Australian smokers to legally access them for smoking cessation. Regulatory changes introduced in October 2021 may allow smokers’ easier access to these products via a medical prescription, but Australian policy still differs markedly from that of other high-income English-speaking countries where e-cigarettes can be legally purchased as consumer goods (e.g. UK, US, Canada and New Zealand). This chapter discusses the history of Australian regulatory approaches to e-cigarettes. It begins by describing how Australian tobacco control policies influenced policy on e-cigarettes and then outlines the rationale that regulators and health organisations have used for the policy. We then discuss the factors that played a crucial role in producing an e-cigarette policy in Australia which is so starkly different from that in UK, Australia’s original colonial power and a major model for other Australian public health policies.