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Mark Butler is asked whether a ban on vapes is having the effect he intended, with prices rising and a potential black market having been created.

The minister says the government has already “seized 5m vapes at the border” on top of the 1 July retail ban.

We’ve taken the approach in the first few months to try to get businesses to surrender their vapes, and many have done that to the TGA. We’ve been conducting inspections in conjunction with state authorities to hundreds of premises to inform them of the new laws and warn them of the consequences in the longer term, but we have to switch to a far more assertive approach.

As I said, my starting position is that … if we can give more families the joy of having children, that’s a great place to start, but we will work through these recommendations carefully, as I imagine your viewers would expect me to.

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