Earlier this month, Australia’s Minister of Health, Greg Hunt, proposed a federal ban on the importation of nicotine e-liquid into Australia. Just days before the ban was scheduled to go into effect, Minister Hunt changed course and indicated that the proposed ban would be delayed for six months.
The ban on nicotine e-liquid imports is now scheduled to begin on January 1, 2021. Previously, the proposed ban was set to begin on July 1, 2020.
Minister Hunt acknowledged in a statement that there are Australians “who have been using these e-cigarettes with nicotine as a means to ending their cigarette smoking.”
He added that the government would “provide further time for implementation of the change by establishing a streamlined process for patients obtaining prescriptions through their GP.”
The move to postpone the ban came in the wake of pushback from not only Australian vapers and the vape industry that serves them, but also members of Hunt’s own government, including Senator Matthew Canavan.
Senator Canavan, LNP Senator for Queensland, and LNP Member for Dawson George Christensen launched a petition to stop the ban prior to Hunt’s announcement that the ban would be delayed until the start of next year. The petition currently has over 73,000 signatures.