Tasmanian health insurer says government has lost the e-cigarette battle

The Senate on Wednesday passed a bill that will end all vape sales from general retailers from July 1 and confine sales to pharmacies.

This will make Australia the first country to restrict sales to pharmacies.

From October 1, a vape can be purchased from a pharmacy without a prescription from a general practitioner.

These new laws follow import restrictions introduced earlier this year which banned the import of single-use disposable vapes into the country.

St Lukes chief executive Paul Lupo said there was no room for political bargaining on health policy.

He said the watered-down vaping bill, negotiated in the Senate on Monday to get the Greens support, put the interests of big tobacco ahead of the health of Tasmanians.

"Effectively turning pharmacies into vape shops without any medical oversight of a product we know is highly addictive and liable to be illegally on-sold to children is a massive setback in our efforts to stop yet another generation becoming addicted to nicotine and the products of big tobacco," Mr Lupo said.

"Tasmanians will be rightly wondering what it will take to convince our lawmakers to take tough and decisive action to just get rid of these products from general circulation full stop."

Pharmacy Guild of Australia state president Helen O'Byrne said there was not a lot of evidence to prove vapes actually helped people to stop smoking.

"We're concerned that we will just become a tobacconist, which professionally we can't stand by because we are here as health professionals to uphold good health and do no harm to people," she said.

"We would find it very difficult to be put in a position where people are seeking recreational vapes from us that aren't necessarily for smoking cessation."

Ms O'Byrne said the making policy on the run within parliament had both disrespected the pharmacy profession and led to bad health policy.

"We need genuine consultation to get a sensible outcome, and that is always possible, but at the moment, that hasn't happened," she said.

The Australian Medical Association welcomed the passage of the bill.

AMA president Stephen Robson said previous attempts to regulate vaping in Australia had failed due to the failure to listen to the public health experts.

"The ultimate goal is to stop people taking up vaping and support those already hooked on this deadly habit to quit, working primarily with their GP - and this legislation does exactly that," he said.