Wednesday, 27 November 2024

Bills

Tobacco Amendment (Tobacco Retailer and Wholesaler Licensing Scheme) Bill 2024

Council’s amendments

The SPEAKER (09:39): I have received a message from the Legislative Council agreeing to the Tobacco Amendment (Tobacco Retailer and Wholesaler Licensing Scheme) Bill 2024 with an amendment.

Ordered that amendment be taken into consideration immediately.

Message from Council relating to following amendment considered:

1. Clause 2, lines 11 to 15, omit all words and expressions on these lines and substitute –

“(1) Subject to subsections (2) and (3), this Act comes into operation on a day or days to be proclaimed.

(2) If a provision of this Act (other than Division 3 of Part 3) does not come into operation before 1 July 2025, it comes into operation on that day.

(3) If Division 3 of Part 3 does not come into operation before 1 July 2026, it comes into operation on that day.”.

Melissa HORNE (Williamstown – Minister for Casino, Gaming and Liquor Regulation, Minister for Local Government, Minister for Ports and Freight, Minister for Roads and Road Safety) (09:41): I ‍move:

That the amendment be agreed to.

This bill is timely and comprehensive. It picks up recommendations from the recent Public Accounts and Estimates Committee inquiry and accounts for recent changes in the federal vaping laws. It enhances the existing penalties for selling illicit tobacco, making it simpler to prosecute offenders and puts in place at the toughest penalties in the country for non-compliance – 15 years jail for an individual or $1.7 million fines for businesses. It creates a licensing regime which allows the regulator to take into consideration anything it thinks necessary to determine suitability from intelligence collected by Victoria Police. It delivers strong enforcement powers to inspectors and police to stamp out illegal behaviour.

The government’s intent has always been for the licensing scheme to commence from mid next year, with the enforcement penalties for unlicensed retailers to commence by early 2026. The amendment passed in the other place is consistent with the government’s policy and is supported. It is a technical amendment which codifies the stated intent of government to commence licensing tobacco retailers by mid-2025. This staged approach to implementation is necessary. When you think about the task at hand, we need to be communicating with the diversity of retailers, from the small local milk bar owner, whose regulatory settings have been largely unchanged for many, many years, to sophisticated players such as Coles and Woolworths, so we need to make the licensing process easy for business and we need to give businesses adequate time to comply with the law and get licensed before we start enforcing penalties for trading without a licence. This bill is timely and necessary, and I commend it to the house.

Tim McCURDY (Ovens Valley) (09:43): I will make a few comments as well on the Tobacco Amendment (Tobacco Retailer and Wholesaler Licensing Scheme) Bill 2024. As we all know, the 110 firebombings need to come to an end, and it was not until a private members bill was introduced from this side of the house that we finally got the government up and running and put a rocket under this government to get moving with this bill. But when we did see the bill, we were concerned about the date; the last possible date that this could come to full completion was 1 July 2026. Considering the government sat on the Better Regulation Victoria report for about three years and then were suggesting another two years to try and get it right, we suggested it needed to come back to 2025. We made those amendments in the other place, and I am certainly pleased we will make these amendments and they will be taken in good faith. The industry is keen to get moving with this, to get it up and going by 1 July 2025. It is a substantial improvement to this bill, and I am pleased that the government has taken on board our recommendations.

Tim READ (Brunswick) (09:44): The Greens welcome these amendments because they codify the intention to get the bill moving sooner than was expressed in the original bill. The Greens also support the bill. We are also grateful to the Animal Justice Party and the Legalise Cannabis Party for supporting our amendment in the other place, which unfortunately was not supported by Labor or Liberal. It is a pity that this bill does not contain any reference to public health and does not specify that it is possible to refuse a licence on the grounds of public health. Specifically, there may be too many tobacco outlets in a region – because of density – or a tobacco outlet may be too close to, perhaps, a school or somewhere frequented by children.

That was in the Greens amendment, which was opposed. It is a pity. I imagine a previous Labor government would have stood up to industry. When we remember that tobacco kills about 16,000 Australians a year and puts many times that number in hospital, it is a shame that this Parliament was unable to stand up to industry in this case and make this a more public health focused bill. Having said that, we support the amendment, and we support the bill.

Motion agreed to.

The SPEAKER: A message will now be sent to the Legislative Council informing them of the house’s decision.