Wednesday, 11 September 2024

Illicit tobacco

Ann-Marie HERMANS (South-Eastern Metropolitan) (18:55): (1147) My adjournment is for the Premier, and the action I seek is for the Premier to immediately address the concerns of all Victorians in dealing with the current violent illegal tobacco trade in force in this state. People want laws and actions with outcomes that help Victorian businesses and families to feel safe, and businesses want to be able to stay in Victoria. According to Victoria Police, there have been more than 70 attacks on tobacco stores and other businesses believed to be involved in selling illicit tobacco since March 2023. Criminal gangs are believed to place illicit tobacco in stores, demanding that the shop owners pay the gangs a tax each week to operate. Police have searched more than 100 tobacco stores and arrested more than 60 people alleged to be involved in the sale of illicit tobacco since the taskforce was established in October.

In March this year the Premier revealed that Victoria would adopt the recommendation of a report by Better Regulation Victoria stating that tobacconists must have a licence to operate, as is the case with the rest of Australia. Police believe that one notorious Melbourne crime family based in the city’s north is earning millions of dollars each week in profit in the black market. But according to the Premier earlier this year, new regulations will be brought before the Victorian Parliament in the second half of this year. We do need to deal with this because it is impacting businesses and it is impacting families in Victoria. The Premier said:

The key reason why we are pursuing this pathway is [that] smoking is harmful, and it can kill people and so that is why we’ve been taking that health-focused approach …

But it is more than that, Premier; it is also about the safety of Victorians. According to the Premier herself, the commissioner’s report recommended that the state-based agency undertakes an enforcement of the new responsibilities, but that was disregarded when the Premier said that there are already a number of different agencies who have different enforcement responsibilities across different sectors in our community and that she was signalling that there would be further consideration and also some advice. That was in March, Premier, and we have had firebombings and we are still having people feeling unsafe, so we need to know what action is being taken. According to the Age:

That confidential document, completed in 2022 and never publicly released, was obtained …

last October. Further:

… In it, the then commissioner for better regulation, Anna Cronin, recommended sweeping changes to tackle organised crime and reduce the consumption of illegal tobacco and nicotine vapes.

It was also noted in the Age:

The illicit tobacco industry is estimated to be worth tens of millions of dollars …

A Victoria Police taskforce, Taskforce Lunar, saw detectives seize a further 3 tonnes of illicit tobacco, more than $170,000 in cash and 11 firearms in a joint operation with the Australian Taxation Office earlier in July. The government needs to stop talking and address this very real and very concerning problem affecting our state.