Wednesday, 27 November 2024

Statements on parliamentary committee reports

Public Accounts and Estimates Committee

Inquiry into Vaping and Tobacco Controls

Mathew HILAKARI (Point Cook) (10:37): I rise to speak on the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee vaping and tobacco controls inquiry report that was delivered in August 2024. I do want to start off by just making a special mention of the grandfather of PAEC, who may well no longer be the grandfather of PAEC after his rise to the position of the Leader of the Nationals. I just want to say that it has been an absolute joy. Should he choose not to continue after 10 years in the role, should he no longer be a member of PAEC, we will miss him because he has done a sensational job on that committee, doing exactly what the committee is designed to do, which is to ask questions about the role of government, particularly through the budget estimates. He really interrogates ministers. He respects ministers who give him answers that he expects as a member of this committee. I do wish him every success in his new role, but I wish the Nationals of course no success in their electoral activity. So best to him, of course, but we are still in a competitive environment.

I want to take us now particularly to the licensing scheme that was mentioned in this report, and there are some really big ticks on what we have achieved as a government since this committee report landed through legislation which has been in front of this place already and has still a little way to go. The first one is recommendation 9 on Better Regulation Victoria. A large number of the recommendations have already been picked up through a bill that has been put before and agreed to by this house already – a big tick for the committee but a big tick for the government.

Another big tick is the annual licensing fees in recommendation 10. These go to support the actual licensing regime that is set up to make sure that those tobacco licensees are doing the right thing and are appropriately of good character.

The next tick was the licensing of retailers and wholesalers to collect data, because, frankly, we do not know enough about the data on what tobacco products are being sold – the quantity and which locations. So that is another big tick that has come out of the PAEC inquiry – it has been taken up and run with by the government. Recommendation 13 included the establishment of a:

… well‑resourced, standalone regulatory agency within the Department of Justice and Community Safety to work in close partnership with Victoria Police …

Another big tick.

These are things that are getting ticked off by this government from serious and important reports that seek to improve Victoria and the regulations that affect Victorians. That is another big tick. Another big tick out of this report is recommendation 17, which has been taken up, which is the strengthening of retail and wholesale licence revocation capability. This was a really critical part because Victoria Police described to the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee how should they have been on a raid of illicit tobacco that was being sold, it would almost instantly be replaced at that same site and that they could not close down that venue. The legislation that has been through this place has dealt with that, so that is another big tick for the government. Recommendation 18 describes the review of current penalties contained in state legislation regarding illicit tobacco and the cigarette trade with a view to increasing them. They have been increased to the extent that they are now the highest in the country, which is up to 15 years imprisonment, so we are having serious effects on the consequences of the trade of illicit tobacco and putting in a real cost of doing business to those people who seek to trade in illicit tobacco.

What I would just really like to say is that I appreciate that the government is acting on the reports that are made across different groups of the Parliament – the Nationals, the Liberals, the Greens and the Labor Party – and then going and actually acting on them. This is improving the lives of Victorians as these measures are enacted through both the chambers of the house.

I do want to finish on – and I have mentioned this before – Detective Superintendent Kelly of the anti-gangs division, who is oversighting the Lunar and VIPER taskforces, who described how almost 100 per cent of those places that they had raided as a police force were trading in illicit tobacco. While I commended that bill to the house, I appreciate all the work done by the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee.