Federal Government says ‘major public health breakthrough' found to tackle school vaping scourge
The OurFutures education program is targeted at year 7 and 8 students and uses cartoon-based stories, quizzes, and classroom activities to inform and empower kids away from vaping.
Fresh research funded by the Albanese Government has found students were 65 per cent less likely to vape in the 12 months after completing the program compared to those who hadn't.
'I'm delighted that we have been able to fund this work - education, prevention, demand reduction is a critical part of our vaping strategy,' Health Minister Mark Butler said.
'This highly prestigious, evidence base program, that has been proven to work at the 40 schools where it was trialled, will now be funded by the Federal Government to roll-out in every single high-school.'
The research published in the global Lancet Public Health Journal on Tuesday, performed a randomised controlled trial of 5,157 students across 40 schools in Western Australia, New South Wales and Queensland.
It found 80 per cent of students who engaged in the program believed the content would help them handle vaping situations in the future.
University of Sydney's Dr Lauren Gardner said OurFutures was modelled off evidence-backed research by the Matilda Centre in Mental Health and Substance Use, with input from teachers and students.
'It's a four lessen education and skills building program. It's really a full toolkit for schools that they can use, ready, plug and play, minimal preparation required from teachers,' Dr Gardner said.
'The OurFutures vaping program is currently the only program in Australia that is proven to reduce student likelihood of vaping. So this (research) is the gold standard type of evaluation evidence that we can get.'
Health Minister Mark Butler implored all jurisdictions, including WA, to step up their enforcement action and strengthen laws to combat the supply of vapes.
Earlier this month WA's chief health officer told state budget estimates no illegal vape suppliers had been fined because current legislation doesn't allow for it.
'Under the Act, there are no infringement powers to issue fines for vapes. They have to be taken to prosecution (and) a number of prosecutions are in train at this stage,' Dr Andrew Robertson conceded.
Minister Butler said he had a 'good discussion' with his state counterparts about the lack of enforcement, but ultimately it was their responsibility to address.
He urged WA authorities to take note of other success stories - like South Australia which has conferred powers to a relevant minister to order the closure of shops which illegally sell vapes. In New South Wales, Premier Chris Minns has also introduced tougher laws to fine and shut down illegal suppliers.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
ABC News
2 hours ago
- ABC News
Canberra Parkinson's community still campaigning for specialist nurse
Canberra's Parkinson's community has long been campaigning for the ACT government to employ a specialist Parkinson's nurse who can visit patients at home.
ABC News
3 hours ago
- ABC News
'Frustrating and disappointing': Canberra residents with Parkinson's disease still campaigning for a specialist nurse
Jenny Miragaya has good and bad days. "When I'm off, I can't walk. I can't stand," she said. The proud grandmother, retired midwife and keen cook was 58 when she was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in 2016. She booked in to see her GP and then a neurologist after noticing her walking had slowed, her voice had quietened and her handwriting had deteriorated. Despite watching the same disease take its toll on her father, the diagnosis came as a shock. "It was awful, I still get teary when I think about it — I just couldn't believe it," Ms Miragaya said. Parkinson's disease is a progressive, degenerative, neurological condition that affects a person's nervous system and their ability to move. It doesn't have a cure, but medication can ease the symptoms, which can include a tremor, stiffness, lack of balance and slurred speech. For Ms Miragaya that was exactly the case, and she revels in running a monthly support group for women in Canberra with Parkinson's disease and singing weekly with the Bushlarks — a choir for people with the condition. But over time her symptoms have become more severe and the efficacy of her medication has reduced. Ms Miragaya is among those in the Parkinson's community who have long been campaigning for the ACT government to employ a specialist Parkinson's nurse who can visit patients at home. Evidence shows specialist nurses who visit patients at home can significantly improve their quality of life, particularly by providing personalised care plans, medication adjustments and safety assessments. They can also help a person to maintain their independence and delay their admission into full-time out-of-home care. "At the moment I'm reasonably okay, but I won't be down the track," Ms Miragaya said. "I will need additional support and assistance if I want to stay in my own home as independently as I can. "And coming from a nursing background, I know how wonderful nurses can be and what they bring to a care team." The community push for a nurse has been going on for a decade, with the first glimmer of hope given ahead of last October's ACT election. It was then that Health Minister Rachel Stephen-Smith made an election commitment to expand the movement disorder centre within the Brindabella Day Service, including providing a specialist Parkinson's nurse who would work in the community. For Marcia Kimball, who is the chair of Parkinson's ACT, it felt like the hard advocacy work was finally paying off. But now, six months on from the election, she is frustrated the more than 3,000 Canberrans living with the disease are still waiting. "It's very frustrating and disappointing for our community that we're still waiting." Ms Kimball said the ACT was now the only jurisdiction in Australia where people with Parkinson's can't access a specialist nurse at home through the public health system. "They have five nurses in South Australia and South Australia is probably three times our population," she said. "All we're asking for is one, which we don't believe is even enough — it's not a lot of money in the scheme of things." Ms Kimball's husband John was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in 2008 after showing signs of rigidity, a slight tremor, apathy, and an overall slowing down. He has been in full-time residential aged care since 2022. Ms Kimball can't help but wonder how much longer her husband could have remained in the family home had he had access to home visits from a specialist nurse. "With Parkinson's, there's a lack of mobility so it can be really hard on carers and the people living with the disease to go out to clinics. "So, having someone come to you really is invaluable." Ms Stephen-Smith said she was still committed to delivering on her election promise. But when pressed for a timeline, the minister failed to provide one. "Canberra Health Services is working to set up that model to ensure that we get it right and that means working with the community as well and recruiting the advance practice nurse to undertake that work," she said. Ms Miragaya said she can't help but feel "discriminated against" by the lack of action. "These are my people now — I'm a Parky — so to keep me well at home, I may need some additional supports and that may mean I need a nurse to come and assess my home, my safety, my ability to cook or clean or dress or shower," she said. "Whatever I need, it should be readily available for me to access, but not if you've got Parkinson's."
West Australian
3 days ago
- West Australian
New parliament, same old props for Anthony Albanese in ascendency
Midway through Question Time on Tuesday, Anthony Albanese received a yellow messenger envelope from which he extracted a slip of green plastic. Health Minister Mark Butler had already discreetly handed his own Medicare card to the Prime Minister minutes earlier. When Mr Albanese rose next, sure enough, he brandished the Medicare card that was never far from his hand during the election campaign. He was so wedded to the bit that, on the day he called the election, a staffer had to be dispatched to the Lodge to retrieve the green and gold card that had been forgotten on the early morning drive to visit the Governor-General. The reiteration of the familiar gesture during this first sitting of Parliament spoke to the Government's determination to focus attention on its delivery of election commitments. It wants to keep talking about what it's doing and sees the Opposition as irrelevant. The attitude shows as well in how Mr Albanese is approaching interacting with new Liberal leader Sussan Ley – or, rather, not interacting with her. He ignores her in the chamber and out of it. Even letters sent to his office go unanswered, where previously Peter Dutton's missives would at least be acknowledged. The Coalition meanwhile was determined to focus on the very topics Australians have just comprehensively shown they like Labor's approach to: health and energy. It didn't carry out any sustained test of brand new ministers Sam Rae (whose aged care portfolio has plenty that needs examining) or assistant Treasurer Daniel Mulino, baffling people on both sides of politics. The toughest questions came from the crossbenchers, like Kate Chaney asking why just 5 per cent of the National Reconstruction Fund had been spent, or Helen Haines wondering what was happening for the nearly 90,000 older Australians waiting an extra four months for the home-care packages they urgently need. Ms Ley and her inner circle jettisoned their planned QT strategy on the fly the day Mr Albanese produced the Medicare card to instead hammer the Prime Minister on the cost of seeing a doctor. Despite the boosted bulk-billing incentives promised during the election not kicking in until November, they asked repeated questions about why it wasn't free now to see a doctor. Coalition frontbencher Melissa McIntosh brandished her own Medicare card along with a credit card during Monday's question time, earning her an admonishment from Speaker Milton Dick: 'The member will not use props!' Mr Albanese, too, received a light rap on the knuckles – 'I'm sure the Prime Minister will look after that card carefully and will continue with his answer' – but it didn't prevent his gleeful grandstanding. He delivered a lesson in the old adage of campaigning in poetry and governing in prose – and fine print. How many Australians today were using their credit card to see the GP? 'Too many is the answer, which is why we want 90 per cent by 2030 to just use this little card here, this piece of green and gold plastic,' Mr Albanese said. Energy Minister Chris Bowen could barely contain his enthusiasm at being given multiple opportunities to point out the Coalition's ongoing rift over net zero and climate policy. After the WA Liberals' State council used the weekend between the sitting weeks to call on the party to dump net zero, Mr Bowen linked Andrew Hastie's leadership ambitions with his enthusiastic support for the moves and hit job on local leader Basil Zempilas. 'The West Australian Liberal Party state council voted against net zero, the Leader of the Opposition in WA came out and disassociated himself from that which earned him an attack from the member for Canning,' Mr Bowen told Parliament. 'The member for Canning will undermine any leader of the opposition that he can find. He's taking a practice run in Perth for what he intends to do in Canberra, sometime in the next 12 months as we all know.' Ali France, who won Dickson from Mr Dutton, asked the first and last questions of the fortnight. 'How has the Albanese Labor Government been pursuing its agenda this fortnight? And how does this compare to other approaches in Parliament?' she inquired on Thursday. 'The Opposition have certainly been pursuing their own agenda – or, should I say, agendas, because there's more than one over there: fighting publicly over whether climate change is real and over whether they support net zero,' Mr Albanese said, continuing with a jibe about 'a split screen showing a split party'. The Prime Minister cautioned his caucus colleagues this week against hubris, telling them Labor had to maintain its humility and sense of service and purpose to keep in voters' good books. That hasn't stopped him and his trusty Leader of the House Tony Burke from rubbing their opponents' noses in the new way of doing things. This is compounded by the depth of the Government's frontbench and ranks of rising talent, in contrast to a decimated and divided Coalition. It's like a grand final team running on against an under-14s side, one longtime political observer put it. From slashing staff to slashing questions and committee leadership positions, they're taking advantage of Labor's numbers in both chambers and control of the ways of Parliament to hinder the Opposition's work in ways that will barely register with the public at large. Take the last-minute stunt on Thursday afternoon, where Labor did a switcheroo on the private members' business for Parliament's return at the end of this month, coming good on a threat to allow Nationals renegade Barnaby Joyce all the time in the world to debate his legislation to repeal net zero. Labor also backed the Greens to set up an examination of 'information integrity on climate change and energy', which might have escaped notice had the Greens not belled the cat on it being an inquiry into conservative campaign outfit Advance. The broad sense from Liberals willing to give her a chance is that Ms Ley's first parliamentary test went OK. She didn't make a splash, but she is giving voters a reason to look again at the party. The fights over net zero and soul-searching about the party's membership and women should have happened three years ago, Liberals from both sides of the party's broad church say. It might be leading to some pain now, but better now than on the eve of an election. Same goes for contributions like that of Longman MP Terry Young, who told Parliament the 'ridiculous practice' of quotas caused more problems than they solved. 'Men tend to be more drawn to vocations that involve maths and physical exertion like construction and trades, whereas women in the main tend to be drawn to careers that involve women and care and other people,' he said. The response from most Liberals asked about it was to put their head in their hands. It was a particularly stark contrast after a week of first speeches from Labor's two dozen new MPs, most of them women and many from diverse backgrounds. They told varied and often emotional stories of what had brought them to Parliament. But the one uniting strand throughout the speeches was their genuinely heartfelt thanks to Mr Albanese — far more so than is typical. Again and again the new MPs thanked him for believing in them when no one else did, for campaigning in their seat despite many writing it off, for asking them to run in the first place. 'Advice given to us when preparing our first speech was that it wouldn't be a bad career move to put in a 'thank you' to the Prime Minister,' Rowan Holzberger, who won the Queensland seat of Forde, said. 'Of course, I want to thank him for his performance during the campaign … But I really want to thank him for being like a big brother.' Once the excitement of the new dynamics of Parliament wears off and the Prime Minister falls back into old habits, there is potential for his bulging 123-member caucus to grow restless and unruly. The deep and personal loyalty to a leader on display during these speeches shows Mr Albanese will have as firm a grip on his party room as he does his Medicare card.
