Thursday, 5 October 2023

Illicit tobacco

Georgie CROZIER (Southern Metropolitan) (18:37): (497) My adjournment matter is for the attention of the Minister for Health, and it relates to the Victorian government’s illicit tobacco review. The action I am requesting is for the minister to release this report that has been sitting on a desk. Danny Pearson, the former Minister for Regulatory Reform, wrote to the commissioner for better regulation –

Matthew Bach interjected.

Georgie CROZIER: 731 days ago, Dr Bach – so he was busy 730-odd days ago – and he asked the commissioner for advice on Victoria’s approach to illicit tobacco regulation. In this letter to the commissioner, he said:

Please provide a report to me and the Minister for Health within six months of receipt of this letter. Publication of the report will be at the discretion of myself and the Minister for Health.

I think that report needs to be released – the government has it – and the reason I say that is because this is becoming a very serious issue. At the moment we have got organised crime networks avoiding detection at international borders and flooding the market with illegal products from overseas, which then becomes an issue of detection and enforcement for the state government, so I cannot understand why the government is not releasing this report and getting on with this issue.

Victoria is the only jurisdiction in Australia without a regulatory licensing scheme for the sale of tobacco and e-cigarettes. In the absence of such a regulatory framework, the black market in illegal tobacco and vaping products has thrived in this unregulated environment. And what we are seeing is that these chop-chop shops are going up in smoke every 5 seconds, it seems. I was reading that there was a factory on fire again today and it was questioned whether it was also linked to illegal activity. It is my understanding that there have been 20 arson attacks on tobacco outlets in the last six months, and the recent murder of a gangland figure, which has also been linked to illicit tobacco gang warfare, which occurred in my electorate of Southern Metropolitan Region, is completely unacceptable. It is putting the community at risk, and this sort of ongoing arson and shooting of one another is just beyond the pale. This is a huge concern.

This report is there. The government is sitting on its hands doing nothing about this illegal trade and we have got these crimes being undertaken unabated. It appears the government, one, is just not interested in community safety and cracking down on these illegal tobacco and illicit trades that are going on and is not taking this issue seriously. Again, I ask that the minister immediately release this review and we get on with protecting the community and cutting out this illicit trade that is actually affecting young people – too many young people. I say in my final few seconds: the instances of smoking are skewed because of this illegal market that is rife in Victoria.